Symphony Music Director
Swiss conductor Thierry Fischer recently renewed his contract as Music Director of the Utah Symphony Orchestra, where he has brought a new energy to the orchestra and organization as a whole.
His hallmarks are a lightness of touch and transparency of texture, allowing room for vivid characterization. He has a keen stylistic sense, and where appropriate uses natural brass and baroque timpani. Fischer has given many world premieres, and has instigated a major commissioning programme in Utah, starting in Spring 2012 with a cello concerto for Jean-Luc Queyras composed by Michel Jarrell, which he will also conduct with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in 2014.
Fischer was Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 2006-2012 and will return as a guest in 2013 and beyond. Highlights of his tenure included the orchestra’s first tour to China as well as to prestigious venues in Europe and the USA; annual visits to the BBC Proms; major celebrations of Messiaen and Dutilleux; and acclaimed recordings of Stravinsky, Honegger and Frank Martin.
A busy guesting career has taken him to orchestras as diverse as the Philharmonia, Orchestre of the Age of Enlightenment, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, WDR Cologne, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, London Sinfonietta, to name just a few.
In 2012 Fischer’s recording for Hyperion of Frank Martin’s opera Der Sturm (‘The Tempest’) with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus (live from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw) was awarded the International Classical Music Award (opera category). Other recent Hyperion releases have included Honegger, d’Indy and Florent Schmitt with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales – with whom he has also recorded the Stravinsky ballets for Signum.
Fischer started out as Principal Flute in Hamburg and at the Zurich Opera. His conducting career began in his 30's when he replaced an ailing colleague, subsequently directing his first few concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe where he was Principal Flute under Claudio Abbado.
