Photo of Conductor Asher Fisch

“The Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s concert featured a welcome visit by West Australian Symphony Orchestra Principal Conductor Asher Fisch […] Fisch and the SSO created moments of vivid emphasis and involving contrapuntal detail, keeping clarity in the intricate cross-phrasing of the Scherzo, and a sense of exultant resolution in the finale….”

Sydney Morning Herald

Making music with equal ease and command in the opera and symphonic worlds, ASHER FISCH conducts a broad repertoire from Gluck to 21st century premiere, with a special command and following for German Romantic and post-romantic repertoire. Fisch is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) in Perth Australia, since 2014, and previously was Music Director of the New Israeli Opera for a decade (1998-2008) and Wiener Volksoper (1995-2005), and was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Opera (2007-2013).

In addition to his concerts with WASO, Fisch will conduct Aribert Reimann’s Lear at the Teatro Real de Madrid, Carmen at the Wiener Staatsoper, and Dialogues des Carmélites at the Israeli Opera. Guest engagements with orchestra include a return to the Queensland Symphony in Brisbane. Fisch’s 2022-23 season featured Lohengrin and La forza del destino at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, and Tannhäuser at Opera Australia, and concerts with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Queensland Symphony, Sydney Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Israel, Fisch began his conducting career as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant and kappellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper. He has built his versatile repertoire at the major opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Semperoper Dresden. Fisch has conducted at leading American symphony orchestras including those of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia. In Europe he has appeared at the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de France, among others.

Fisch’s award-winning discography includes Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde; tenor Stuart Skelton’s first solo album, recorded with WASO; and a recording of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole with the Munich Radio Orchestra. In 2016, he recorded the complete Brahms symphonies with WASO, released on ABC Classics to great acclaim. His recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle with the Seattle Opera was released in 2014. His first Ring Cycle recording, with the State Opera of South Australia, won ten Helpmann Awards, including best opera and best music direction. Fisch is also an accomplished pianist and has recorded a solo disc of Wagner piano transcriptions for the Melba label.

OCTOBER 2023