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Asher Fisch
ASHER FISCH
Israeli-born Asher Fisch has conducted the world’s great opera houses, and is currently principal guest conductor of the Seattle Opera. A former music director of both the Vienna Volksoper and the New Israeli Opera, he makes frequent guest appearances throughout Europe and the United States. During the 2009–10 season he will conduct a new production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde for the Seattle Opera, and will make his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in a program featuring Daniel Barenboim as piano soloist. He also will lead concerts with the Kansas City Symphony, and in Naples, Genoa, and Bologna, Italy.
Mr. Fisch has appeared for many years at the Vienna Staatsoper, conducting symphonic opera repertoire that includes Verdi’s Falstaff and R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. He made his debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper last season, and is scheduled to conduct five productions there in 2009–10, including Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, R. Strauss’s Salome and Ariadne auf Naxos, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and a new production of Palestrina, the opera rarity by Hans Pfitzner. He has also been a regular guest conductor at the Berliner Staatsoper, conducting a broad repertoire of core Romantics works in addition to Mozart operas. Similarly, he has conducted repertoire ranging from Mozart to
Berg in other leading European opera houses such as Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Vienna Staatsoper, Paris Opéra, Dresden Semper Oper, Hamburg Staatsoper, Leipzig Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he conducted the concert gala celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the Royal Opera House, which was recorded and released by EMI Records. He has also conducted at The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Houston Grand Opera.
Mr. Fisch has conducted the orchestras of Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, Houston, St. Louis, Toronto, Montreal, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C. In Europe, he appears regularly with the Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, and the Staatskapelle Dresden, which he led on an acclaimed tour of Italy in 2002. In Asia, he has conducted the NHK Orchestra of Tokyo. Mr. Fisch began his conducting career as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant and Kapellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper, and has been championed by Mr. Barenboim ever since. He is also an accomplished pianist, and has directed Mozart piano concertos and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue from the keyboard. He continues to perform in chamber concerts and vocal recitals. Mr. Fisch last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in September 2006 for the concerts with Andrea Bocelli.
