Norman Fischer, Cello

Norman Fischer has concertized on five continents and in 49 of the 50 United States. He was cellist with the Concord String Quartet through its 16-year career and winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, two Grammy nominations and an Emmy. In over 1000 concerts the quartet performed 18 Bartok cycles, 36 Beethoven cycles and premiered 50 works. They also recorded 40 works for RCA Red Seal, Vox, Nonesuch and CRI. Mr. Fischer’s chamber music expertise has led to performances with the American, Audubon, Bair, Cavani, Chester, Chiara, Ciompi, Cleveland, Dover, Ensø, Emerson, Jasper, Juilliard, Mendelssohn and Schoenberg string quartets, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Banff, Chamber Music International, Context (including a complete Beethoven piano trio cycle on period instruments), and Houston’s Da Camera Society. He has also served on many competition juries including the Paolo Borciani and Banff International string quartet competitions.
    Mr. Fischer is the cellist with the Fischer Duo, a group with pianist Jeanne Kierman that was founded in 1971 and specializes in both the classical masterworks of Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann as well as music of our own time. They have over a dozen recordings. Most notable are: Imaginées: Music of French Masters, American Music in the 1990s, Complete Music for Cello and Piano of Chopin and Liszt, and Complete Cello Music of William Bolcom. The most recent album is Beethoven Cello and Piano Complete on the Centaur label that is the most comprehensive collection of Beethoven’s music for the two instruments. The Duo has premiered over 30 new scores by composers such as George Rochberg, Augusta Read Thomas, Robert Sirota, Pierre Jalbert, and Richard Wilson. They continue to actively perform throughout the United States and twice have served as Artistic Ambassadors for the USIA with tours to South America and South Africa.