Biography
Well-known to opera audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, conductor Asher Fisch is receiving increasing acclaim for his command of a broad orchestral repertoire. The Washington Post recently hailed his interpretation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the National Symphony Orchestra as a “heavenly 9th” and “a 9th to remember.” In addition to his frequent guest appearances throughout Europe and the United States, he has served as Music Director of the Israeli Opera since 1995.
Mr. Fisch has been a regular guest at the Vienna Staatsoper, conducting works including Parsifal, Fidelio, Onegin, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. He has also conducted repertoire ranging from Mozart to Berg in leading European opera houses such as Berlin, Paris, Munich, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig and Prague as well as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. His gala concert celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the Royal Opera House was recorded and released by EMI Records. After making his United States debut with the Los Angeles Opera in 1995 he has since conducted at the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera and Houston Grand Opera. In the summer of 2003 he inaugurated the new Seattle Opera House to great acclaim with a new production of Parsifal, and returned to Seattle in July 2004 for Lohengrin. That same year culminated in a new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle for the South Australian Opera. The production won ten awards at Australia's Helpmann Awards, including best opera and best music direction.
In the symphony hall Mr. Fisch has conducted such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and National Symphony in Washington. Elsewhere, Mr. Fisch has appeared regularly with the Munich Philharmonic and has also conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, NHK Tokyo and the Staatskapelle Dresden, which he led on an acclaimed tour of Italy in 2002.
Asher Fisch’s tenure as Music Director of the Vienna Volksoper exemplifies a great partnership between Music Director and General Director Klaus Bachler. Their achievements range from a critically acclaimed production by Christina Mietlitz of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opera company to the Vienna premiere of Zemlinsky’s Der Konig Kandaules.
Championed by Daniel Barenboim, Mr. Fisch began his conducting career as Maestro Barenboim’s assistant and kappellemeister at the Berlin Staatsoper. He is also an accomplished pianist, and has directed Mozart piano concerti and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue from the keyboard; he continues to perform in chamber concerts and vocal recitals.