Iván Fischer

Hungarian conductor and composer, Iván Fischer, was born into a Jewish musical family, which includes his brother, the conductor Adam Fischer. Initially he studied piano, violin, cello and composition at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest. He moved later to Vienna to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the University of Music and Performing Arts (1971-1974), where he also studied cello and early music. He also worked as assistant to Nikolaus Harnoncourt on period performance practice in Salzburg during 1975. Although he had previously been a prize-winner at the Florence Conducting Competition in 1974, Fischer’s professional conducting career was effectively launched when he won the Rupert Foundation Conducting Competition in London in 1976. Iván Fischer was soon invited to direc