Iván Fischer

con­duc­tor, Music Direc­tor

Con­duc­tor, com­pos­er, opera direc­tor, thinker and edu­ca­tor, anchored in the tra­di­tion of the great musi­cal poly­maths, Iván Fis­ch­er is con­sid­ered one of the most vision­ary musi­cians of our time.

His focus is always the music, and to this end, he has devel­oped sev­er­al new con­cert for­mats and reformed the struc­ture and work­ing method of the sym­pho­ny orches­tra. In the mid-1980s he found­ed the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra, where he has since intro­duced and estab­lished numer­ous inno­va­tions. He envi­sions a pool of musi­cians serv­ing the com­mu­ni­ty in var­i­ous com­bi­na­tions and musi­cal styles.

His work as Music Direc­tor of the Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra has devel­oped into one of the great­est musi­cal suc­cess sto­ries of the last 30 years. With inter­na­tion­al tours and a series of record­ings for Philips Clas­sics and Chan­nel Clas­sics, he has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as one of the world’s most cel­e­brat­ed orches­tral con­duc­tors, for whom tra­di­tion and inno­va­tion go hand in hand.

He has found­ed a num­ber of fes­ti­vals, includ­ing the Budapest Mahler­fest, the Bridg­ing Europe fes­ti­val and the Vicen­za Opera Fes­ti­val. The World Eco­nom­ic Forum pre­sent­ed him with the Crys­tal Award for his achieve­ments in fos­ter­ing inter­na­tion­al cul­tur­al rela­tions.

He was prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor of the Nation­al Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra in Wash­ing­ton, the Opéra Nation­al de Lyon and the Konz­erthau­sor­ch­ester Berlin, the lat­ter appoint­ing him Con­duc­tor Lau­re­ate. The Roy­al Con­cert­ge­bouw Orches­tra named him Hon­orary Guest Con­duc­tor fol­low­ing many decades of work­ing togeth­er. He is a fre­quent guest con­duc­tor of the Berlin Phil­har­mon­ic, the Bavar­i­an Radio Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra and New York Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra.

Iván Fis­ch­er stud­ied the piano, vio­lin and cel­lo in Budapest, before join­ing the leg­endary con­duct­ing class of Hans Swarowsky in Vien­na. Hav­ing spent two years as assis­tant to Niko­laus Harnon­court, he then launched his inter­na­tion­al career as win­ner of the Rupert Foun­da­tion con­duct­ing com­pe­ti­tion in Lon­don.

After var­i­ous guest appear­ances at inter­na­tion­al opera hous­es, he found­ed the Ivan Fis­ch­er Opera Com­pa­ny. His stag­ing always sets as its goal an organ­ic uni­ty between music and the­atre. IFOC pro­duc­tions, which often spa­tial­ly con­nect the instru­men­tal­ists and singers, have been received with great acclaim in recent years in New York, Edin­burgh, Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Gene­va and Budapest.

Iván Fis­ch­er has been active as a com­pos­er since 2004, writ­ing most­ly vocal music with instru­men­tal ensem­bles. His opera The Red Heifer made head­lines across the world; the children’s opera The Gruffa­lo enjoyed numer­ous revivals in Berlin; his most fre­quent­ly per­formed work, “Eine Deutsch-Jid­dis­che Kan­tate” has been per­formed and record­ed in sev­er­al coun­tries.

Iván Fis­ch­er is founder of the Hun­gar­i­an Mahler Soci­ety and patron of the British Kodá­ly Acad­e­my. The pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Hun­gary award­ed him the Gold Medal, and the French gov­ern­ment hon­ored him as Cheva­lier des Arts et des Let­tres. In 2006 he was dec­o­rat­ed with the Hun­gar­i­an Kos­suth Prize, in 2011 with the Roy­al Phil­har­mon­ic Soci­ety Music Award and the Dutch Ovatie Prize, and in 2013 he was named an hon­orary mem­ber of the Roy­al Acad­e­my of Music in Lon­don.
Iván Fis­ch­er is hon­orary cit­i­zen of Budapest.

Veronika Eberle

vio­lin

Veroni­ka Eberle’s excep­tion­al tal­ent and the poise and matu­ri­ty of her musi­cian­ship have been recog­nised by many of the world’s finest orches­tras, venues and fes­ti­vals, as well as by some of the most emi­nent con­duc­tors. Sir Simon Rattle’s intro­duc­tion of Veroni­ka aged just 16 to a packed Salzburg Fest­piel­haus at the 2006 Salzburg East­er Fes­ti­val in a per­for­mance of the Beethoven con­cer­to with the Berlin­er Phil­har­moniker, brought her to inter­na­tion­al atten­tion.

Key orches­tra col­lab­o­ra­tions since then include the Lon­don Sym­pho­ny, Con­cert­ge­bouw, New York Phil­har­mon­ic, Mon­tre­al Sym­pho­ny, Munich Phil­har­mon­ic and Gewand­haus Orches­tras, Rund­funk Sin­fonieorch­ester Berlin, Hes­sis­ch­er Rund­funk Sin­fonieorch­ester, Bam­berg­er Sym­phoniker, Ton­halle Orch­ester Zurich, NHK Sym­pho­ny, Bay­erisch­er Rund­funk Munich and Rot­ter­dam Phil­har­mon­ic.

Recent con­cer­to high­lights include the Klas­sik am Odeon­splatz with Simon Rat­tle and the Bay­erisch­er Rund­funk Munich as well as debuts with Philadel­phia, San Fran­cis­co Sym­pho­ny and Phil­har­mo­nia Orches­tras and Cham­ber Orches­tra of Europe, Swedish Radio Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, Lux­em­bourg Phil­har­mon­ic and Orchestre Nation­al de Lille. Veroni­ka also toured Aus­tralia mak­ing debut per­for­mances with the Auck­land Phil­har­mo­nia, Tas­mani Sym­pho­ny and West Aus­tralian Sym­pho­ny Orches­tras as well as with the Seoul Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra.

In the 22/23 sea­son, high­lights include the Swedish Radio Sym­pho­ny (Hard­ing), Nether­lands Cham­ber Orches­tra (Minasi), Lon­don Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra (Rat­tle, Han­ni­gan), Budapest Fes­ti­val Orches­tra (Fis­ch­er), Gürzenich-Orch­ester Köln (Mall­witz), Orchestre Nation­al de Lille (Bloch), DSO Berlin (Tic­ciati) and per­for­mances with Cham­ber Orches­tra of Europe in Berlin and Eisen­stadt. Cham­ber music projects include per­for­mances at the Gstaad Menuhin Fes­ti­val with Sol Gabet­ta and Antoine Tamestit and Schu­ber­ti­ade with Steven Isserlis and Con­nie Shih amongst oth­ers.

Veroni­ka has enjoyed col­lab­o­ra­tions with con­duc­tors such as Sir Simon Rat­tle, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Hard­ing, Chris­t­ian Thiele­mann, Yan­nick Nézet-Séguin, Kent Nagano, Loren­zo Viot­ti, Louis Lan­grée, Robin Tic­ciati, Paa­vo Järvi, Alan Gilbert, Ivan Fis­ch­er, Heinz Hol­liger and Sir Roger Nor­ring­ton.

Born in Donauwörth South­ern Ger­many, she start­ed vio­lin lessons at the age of six and four years lat­er became a junior stu­dent at the Richard Strauss Kon­ser­va­to­ri­um in Munich with Olga Voito­va. After study­ing pri­vate­ly with Christoph Pop­pen for a year, she joined the Hochschule in Munich, where she stud­ied with Ana Chu­machen­co 2001–2012.

Veroni­ka has ben­e­fit­ed from the sup­port of a num­ber of pres­ti­gious organ­i­sa­tions, includ­ing the Nip­pon Foun­da­tion, the Bor­let­ti-Buitoni Trust (Fel­low­ship in 2008), the Orpheum Stiftung zur Förderung Junger Solis­ten (Zurich), the Deutsche Stiftung Musik­leben (Ham­burg) and the Jür­gen-Pon­to Stiftung (Frank­furt). She was a BBC Radio 3 New Gen­er­a­tion Artist 2011–2013 and was a Dort­mund Konz­erthaus “Junge Wilde” artist 2010–2012.

Veroni­ka Eber­le plays on a vio­lin made by the Ital­ian vio­lin mak­er Anto­nio Gia­co­mo Stradi­vari in 1693, which was made avail­able to her on gen­er­ous loan by the Rein­hold Würth Musik­s­tiftung gGmbH.