Kyrian Friedenberg is a 27-year-old American-Canadian conductor who served as Assistant Conductor of the Ensemble intercontemporain at the Philharmonie de Paris from 2024-26. He came to international attention after winning the 2022 Neeme Järvi Prize at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and has since been recognized with Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards in 2024 and 2025. In 2025, he was a Grand Finalist in the 59th Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors and was in residence with the Vienna Philharmonic as the 2025 AAF/Faber Conductor Fellow at the Salzburg Festival.

The 2026/2027 season sees his debuts with the SWR-Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Klangforum Wien, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, l’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen, and a production of Don Giovanni at l’Opéra de Toulon. Return invitations include l’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, l’Orchestre de Cannes, the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, and l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Having returned to l’Orchestre National Bordeaux-Aquitaine in September, he was asked back two weeks later to step in on short notice for Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with François-Frédéric Guy, and Sofia Avramidou’s Innsmouth.

In the previous season, he made a notable debut with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Choeur de Radio France for the opening of the Présences Festival. He made several other major debuts, with Les Violons du Roy in a play-conduct program in Quebec City and Montreal, and l’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He also assisted Kazuki Yamada and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Conductor on a 13-concert tour of Europe, and assisted Leonardo García-Alarcón at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris in the class of Alain Altinoglu, and has participated in the Gstaad Conducting Academy (2022) and the Accademia Chigiana (2023), working closely with Jaap van Zweden and Daniele Gatti. He has also taken part in masterclasses with Mikko Franck, Johannes Schlaefli, Baldur Brönnimann, Alexandre Bloch and others. He currently studies Baroque conducting and Maestro al cembalo with Leonardo García-Alarcón part-time at the Haute École de Musique de Genève.

Before turning to conducting, Kyrian worked as a professional actor, appearing in 332 performances of the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy starring Patti LuPone (dir. Arthur Laurents), as well as in several Off- and Off-Off-Broadway productions, including a lead role in Ron Hirsen’s Frugal Repast at the Abingdon Theater in Manhattan. He also performed widely as a boy soprano, singing title roles in Nico Muhly’s Two Boys, Peter Ash’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Originally from New York City, Kyrian holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from McGill University and now resides in Paris.