Norman Fischer is one of America’s most versatile cellists. He first graced the international concert stage as cellist with the Concord String Quartet, a group that won the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, an Emmy and several Grammy nominations, and recorded over forty works on RCA Red Seal, Vox, Nonesuch, Turnabout, New World and CRI. In addition to performing the major concerti, Norman Fischer has given premières and recorded many new scores for cello and orchestra, including two recorded with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony by Augusta Read Thomas and Ross Lee Finney. His recitals of unaccompanied cello works have received high critical acclaim, notably for his New York début recital of the complete Bach Suites in one evening and for his performance of Golijov’s Omaramor at the opening of the 1998 Tanglewood festival.
For over 35 years Norman Fischer has collaborated with pianist Jeanne Kierman as the Fischer Duo, a group that has served twice as United States Artistic Ambassadors and has toured South America and South Africa, as well as playing recitals throughout the United States. The Fischer Duo is known for its large and varied repertoire. In addition to the classic standard repertoire it has rediscovered old masters from the past and has commissioned many new works. They have recorded extensively repertoire from Chopin and Liszt to recent works commissioned by the Fischer Duo. Norman Fischer’s chamber music expertise has led to guest appearances with the American, Audubon, Blair, Cavani, Chester, Chiara, Ciompi, Cleveland, Enso, Emerson, Juilliard, Mendelssohn and Schoenberg string quartets, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music International, Context, and Houston’s Da Camera Society. Norman Fischer joins pianist Jeanne Kierman and violinist Andrew Jennings as the Concord Trio, a group that has been performing together for over thirty years. Since 2001 he has shared the artistic leadership of Vermont Musica Viva with Jeanne Kierman and violinist Curtis Macomber.
A student of master teachers Richard Kapuscinski, Claus Adam and Bernard Greenhouse, Norman Fischer is himself a devoted teacher and mentor to young players. He has been on the faculty of Dartmouth College and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and is currently Professor of Violoncello at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Since 1985, he has taught at the Tanglewood Music Center (summer home of the Boston Symphony), in Lenox, MA where he holds the position as Coordinator of Chamber Music and Strings.
