A renowed Israeli conductor in both the operatic and symphonic worlds,
Asher Fisch is especially celebrated for his interpretative command of
core German and Italian repertoire of the Romantic and post-Romantic era,
in particular Wagner, Brahms, Strauss, and Verdi. Asher Fisch also
conducts a wide variety of other repertoire from Gluck to contemporary
works, and serves as an advocate of living composers such as Avner Dorman
and others.
Starting as an assistant to Daniel Barenboim, Fisch went on to be the
associate conductor of the Berlin State Opera. In 1995, he conducted
Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at the Los Angeles Opera.
Afterwards he was appointed as Music Director of the Wiener Volksoper
(1995- 2000), New Israeli Opera (1998- 2008), Principal Guest Conductor of
the Seattle Opera (2007- 2013), where he concluded his tenure conducting
the Opera's quadrennial Wagner Ring Cycle in summer 2013. In 2014, Fisch
became the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the West Australian
Symphony Orchestra (WASO).
Since his debut in the United States, he has conducted at the
Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and San
Francisco Opera. A regular guest at leading European opera houses, Fisch
has conducted all the major German and Austrian opera houses including
Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Vienna, Milan's Teatro alla Scala, Paris
Opera, the Royal Opera House, and Covent Garden. Among North American
symphony orchestras, he has conducted those of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland,
New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle,
Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, St. Louis, Montreal, Toronto and the
National Symphony in Washington, D.C. In Europe he has appeared at the
Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra,
Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Orchestre National de France, among others.
Asher Fisch has long maintained strong and enduring ties to the
Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich) and in the 2015- 16 season conducted five
titles including Werther, La Bohème, Manon
Lescaut, Turandot, Der fliegende Holländer. He
also returned to the Teatro Regio di Torino to conduct Carmen.
Guest symphony orchestra engagements include the Melbourne Symphony,
Staatskapelle Dresden, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Badische Staatskapelle
Karlsruhe, Nashville Symphony (debut), Milwaukee Symphony, and Minnesota
Orchestra.
Fisch is also an accomplished pianist and released his first solo disc
of Wagner piano transcriptions in 2012 on Melba. He often play- conducts
and frequently participates in chamber music and vocal recitals.
Among his recent engagements in: Munich Der Fliedenge Höllander, La
Traviata, Falstaff, Un ballo in maschera, La Forza del destino, Il
Trovatore, Otello, Tosca, La Bohème, Thannauser;
New York Tristan und Isolde, Carmen; Torino Die Zauberflöte;
Dresden Der Fliedenge Höllander, Hansel und Gretel, Arabella; Naples
Fedora; Tokyo Tannhauser, Cavalleria Rusticana &
Pagliacci and La Forza del destino in Bologna Fidelio,
Adriana Lecouvreur, Otello, Lohengrin.
On the concert side, he conducted: Mahler's Second symphony and
all Beethoven's Symphony Cicle in Bologna, a Liederabend
in Ravello and concerts in Perth, Sydney, Tokyo, Stuttgart La Fenice in
Venice.
Plans include: Lear in Madrid; Carmen at the Wiener
Staatsoper; Ariadne auf Naxos and Les Dialogues de Carmelites
at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv; War Requiem in Duesseldorf.
December 2023