Marsalis / Rachmaninoff

CONDUCTOR
Chloé Dufresne

With her clear technique, calm authority and imaginative palette, Chloé Dufresne has made her mark as a conductor only a few years since graduating from the Sibelius Academy. She has recently been appointed Music Director of Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and serves as Associate Artist of the Orchestre National de Bretagne and Artistic Director of Orchestre Ostinato.

A background in singing and choral conducting has led Dufresne naturally to opera, and in the 2024–25 season she conducted Carmen at Theater Magdeburg, Orphée aux enfers with Opéra national du Capitole de Toulouse, L’Elisir d’amore with Opéra National de Lorraine, and a new production of Leonard Evers’ Humanoid at Semperoper Dresden. Earlier productions include Don Giovanni, Norma, Albert Herring and Offenbach’s Pomme d’Api for Opéra Rouen, Opéra de Toulon, Opéra de Nice and Opéra National de Lorraine, as well as a Bayreuth production of Wagner’s The Ring for children at the Helsinki Festival. Alongside her commitments in Colorado, this season Dufresne conducts Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz and Kuopio Symphony Orchestra.

In France, she returns to Orchestre National de Bretagne, Opéra Grand Avignon (with Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène) and Opéra National de Paris for Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. As well as specializing in core repertoire by composers such as Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Dvořák and Beethoven, Dufresne is a strong advocate for new music and won a prize for her interpretation of music by Camille Pépin at the Besançon Conducting Competition.

In her role as Music Director of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic she will collaborate with contemporary composers including Wynton Marsalis, Hannah Kendall, Michael Daugherty and John Williams. She previously conducted music by György Ligeti, Lucas Ligeti and Hannah Kendall with Basel Sinfonietta, and works by Ross Edwards, Cecilia Damström and Ville Raasakka.

Dufresne studied viola, singing and choral conducting before completing her Masters in conducting from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 2020, where her teachers included Atso Almila, Sakari Oramo and Alain Altinoglu. In 2021 she won both audience and orchestra prizes at the Besançon Conducting Competition and was awarded 3rd prize at the Malko Competition. She was a Conducting Fellow at the 2022 Lucerne Festival and a Dudamel Fellow with Los Angeles Philharmonic.

TRUMPET
Michael Sachs

Michael Sachs joined The Cleveland Orchestra as Principal Trumpet in 1988. Praised by critics for demonstrating “how brass playing can be at once heroic and lyrical” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer), he is recognized internationally as a leading soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, teacher, author, and clinician. Celebrating his 36th season with the orchestra, he is the longest-serving Principal Trumpet in the history of The Cleveland Orchestra.

Since joining The Cleveland Orchestra, Michael Sachs has been a featured soloist on numerous occasions. Among his many solo appearances with the orchestra, highlights include the world premiere of John Williams’ Concerto for Trumpet (written for and dedicated to Sachs), the premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Requiem, and most recently, Sachs performed the world premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Concerto for Trumpet (written for and dedicated to Sachs) with Music Director Franz Welser-Möst conducting. Additional solo work has included appearances with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland (New Zealand) Philharmonia, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His orchestral discography includes over 200 recorded works with The Cleveland Orchestra. His world premiere performance and recording of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Elegy for those we lost for trumpet and harp (with his wife, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis) was first seen on The Cleveland Orchestra’s Adella streaming platform and later released as a single on the Azica label in 2021.

Since 2015, Michael Sachs has served as Music Director of the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In addition to conducting the festival’s chamber orchestra, his featured performances are a staple of each year’s programming. As a lead artistic administrator and performer for the National Brass Ensemble, he spearheaded the NBE’s 2014 Gabrieli recording project and subsequent 2015 concert in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, as well as the 2022 NBE academy, recording, and concert at San Francisco’s Davies Hall.

From 1988-2023, Michael Sachs served as Chair of the Brass Division and Head of the Trumpet Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he currently is the Trumpet Instructor. From 2018-2022, Sachs was also Lecturer of Trumpet at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. In addition to serving on the faculty of leading summer festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival, Blekinge International Brass Academy, and more, Michael Sachs regularly presents master classes and workshops at conservatories and major universities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a clinician for the Conn-Selmer Company (makers of Bach trumpets). At the invitation of Sir Georg Solti, he served as Principal Trumpet/Instructor in the Solti Orchestral Project at Carnegie Hall. In 2023, Sachs received the International Trumpet Guild’s highest award, the ITG Honorary Award, given annually to individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the art of trumpet playing through performance, teaching, publishing, research, and/or composition.

Michael Sachs is the author of Daily Fundamentals for the Trumpet and Mahler Symphonic Works – Complete Trumpet Parts (Volumes I-III), all published by the International Music Company. His most recent projects include a new edition of The Orchestral Trumpet and Practice Sequences for The Orchestral Trumpet, published by Theodore Presser. Additionally, Sachs has co-authored 14 Duets for Trumpet and Trombone with Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic, and has contributed forewords to Rafael Mendez’s Prelude to Brass Playing and The Herbert L. Clarke Collection, all published by Carl Fischer Music. From 2008-2014, he served as editor of the column, “Inside the Orchestra Section,” for the International Trumpet Guild Journal.

Prior to joining The Cleveland Orchestra, Michael Sachs was a member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, where he also performed with the Houston Grand Opera and served on the faculty of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Sachs’ performances have been heard on CBS This Morning, The Kennedy Center Honors, and The Heroes of Conscience Concert for PBS. As a baseball fan, some of his fondest memories are of his numerous performances of the National Anthem at the Cleveland Indians’ opening days and playoff games.

Originally from Santa Monica, California, Michael Sachs attended UCLA, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History before continuing studies at The Juilliard School of Music. His former teachers include Ziggy Elman, Mark Gould, Anthony Plog, and James Stamp.

For more information on Michael Sachs, please visit www.MichaelSachs.com.