The Fischer Duo: American Sonatas

Norman Fischer has concertized on five continents and in 49 of the 50 United States. He was the 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 Award. 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.

Jeanne Kierman Fischer specializes in contemporary American piano music and has presented solo recitals in Africa and North America. As a chamber musician, she appears regularly at festivals such as Tanglewood, Da Camera of Houston, Mohawk Trail concerts, Chamber Music Ann Arbor, Maverick concerts and Juneau Jazz and Classics. Formerly on the faculties of Dartmouth College and the Oberlin Conservatory, Ms. Kierman toured extensively under sponsorship by the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Vermont & Ohio Arts Councils.

In cello/piano partnership, Ms. Kierman and Norman Fischer (as the Fischer Duo) have concertized and engaged in residency activities all around the U.S. for almost forty years; in 1996 and 1997, they were chosen as Artistic Ambassadors for the U.S. Information Agency and toured in South America and South Africa. At the present time, the Fischer Duo is in the process of recording the complete sonatas and variations for cello and piano by Beethoven to celebrate their 40th anniversary.