Iván Fischer

Iván Fischer studied at University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Training under Hans Swarowsky and Nikolaus Harnoncourt is recorded. The recorded working language is Hungarian. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are classical music. Distinctions recorded are Kossuth Prize, Prima Primissima Prize, Radnóti Miklós Anti-racist Prize and Hazám-díj.

Born in Budapest into a musical family of Jewish heritage, Fischer initially studied piano, violin, cello and composition in Budapest. His older brother, Ádám Fischer, became a conductor in his own right. He moved later to Vienna to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the University of Music and Performing Arts, where he also studied cello and early music, studying and working as assistant to Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He also studied with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. In 1976, Fischer won the Rupert Foundation conducting competition in London. He began thereafter to guest-conduct British orchestras such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra, with whom he conducted a world tour in 1982. His US conducting debut was with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1983.

Fischer returned to Hungary in 1983 to found the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO), which initially was intended for a limited number of concerts a year on a part-time basis. The BFO became a permanent institution in 1992, with a schedule of about 30 weeks of performing a year. With the BFO, he has incorporated unorthodox ideas into practice, including allowing individual symphony musicians to contribute to concert programming, as in the "cocoa-concerts" for young children. Other series include the Titok-koncert ("bag of surprise") concert series where the programme is not announced, "one forint concerts" where he talks to the audience, open-air concerts in Budapest attracting tens of thousands of people, as well as concert opera performances. Fischer has founded several festivals, including a summer festival in Budapest on baroque music and the Budapest Mahlerfest which is also a forum for commissioning and presenting new music works. In addition, there is an annual competition from within the orchestra for soloist opportunities in concert. Fischer and the BFO have recorded commercially for Philips Classics and Channel Classics Records. • Illustration — Iván Fischer accolades for teachers. In the second part he conducts Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances No. 17 during the libre Tértánc event, 2018

In the US, Fischer held the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for seven years. In 2006, he became Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. In April 2007, Fischer was named the principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), after Leonard Slatkin stepped down as music director in 2008. He held the title for two years. Fischer was Music Director at Kent Opera in the UK from 1984 to 1989. He was Music Director of the Opéra National de Lyon from 2000 to 2003. The Lyon production of Ariadne auf Naxos received the prize of Best Regional Opera Production of the Year given by the Association of French Music Critics. Other work in opera as a guest conductor has included a Mozart cycle in the Vienna State Opera, and productions in Zurich, London, Paris, Brussels, Stockholm and Budapest. He debuted in 2006 at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in a new production of Così fan tutte: In 2006, Fischer was named Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In February 2011, he was named music director of the Konzerthaus Berlin and principal conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, effective with the 2012–2013 season, with an initial contract of 3 years. In October 2016, the orchestra announced that Fischer is to stand down as its principal conductor after the 2017/2018 season, at which close he concluded his tenure in the post. In October 2020, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra announced the appointment of Fischer as its next honorary guest conductor (honorair gastdirigent), effective with the 2021-2022 season. In July 2024, the European Union Youth Orchestra announced the appointment of Fischer as its music director, with immediate effect. In 2011, Fischer was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Music Award and the Dutch Ovatie Prize. In 2013, he was named an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

In response to COVID-19's impact, Fischer invented an acoustic face mask that featured plastic hands cupped around the wearer's ears. He said his masks "help to emulate church acoustics, with warmer undertones and clearer, sharper contours". Audience members said they improved the sound.

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