Iván Fischer
Chef d’orchestre
Countless recordings and tours testify to Iván Fischer’s outstanding reputation. The conductor, who comes from a Hungarian family of musicians, has been a frequent guest of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1989.
Iván Fischer studied piano, violin, violoncello and composition in his hometown of Budapest before training as a conductor under Hans Swarowsky and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. After his early professional years in Great Britain, he returned to his Hungarian homeland in 1983, where he founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which he still leads today as music director. He was also music director of the Opéra de Lyon, principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington and head of the Berlin Konzerthausorchester (2012–2018), which made him its honorary conductor. Iván Fischer is a regular guest of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, as well as with the New York Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra. A close artistic partnership links him to the Wiener Staatsoper, and he has also made guest appearances at many other major theatres. Fischer is a composer of chamber music, choral works, the musical theatre piece [The Red Heifer] and the children’s opera [The Gruffalo]. He also directs operas and staged concerts and is a creative developer of new concert formats. His awards include the Golden Medal of the President of the Republic of Hungary and the Kossuth Prize, the Royal Philharmonic Society Award, honorary citizenship of the city of Budapest and the appointment as Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the Republic of France.
