Asher Fisch
Direttore

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