Iván Fischer

Born in 1951 into a family of musicians in Budapest, Iván Fischer studied piano, violin, cello, and composition in his hometown before completing his conducting studies under Hans Swarowsky and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. After spending his early professional years in Great Britain, he founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 1983, which he led to international fame and where he remains Artistic Director to this day. He has also served as General Music Director of the Opéra de Lyon and Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington. From 2012 to 2018, he led the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, which subsequently named him its Honorary Conductor. He has maintained close ties with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as its Honorary Guest Conductor since 2021, and he has served as Music Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra since 2024. Fischer regularly conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. Following guest appearances on international stages, he decided to pursue a new direction and founded the Iván Fischer Opera Company, which produces independent opera productions that he himself also directs. He launched the Vicenza Opera Festival in 2018 and the European Orchestra Academy in 2024. The World Economic Forum in Davos awarded him the Crystal Award for his contributions to the promotion of international cultural relations. Among the numerous new concert formats Fischer has created is the “Mittendrin” series, in which the audience is seated side-by-side with the orchestra. He has composed chamber music, choral works, the music theater piece The Red Heifer, the children’s opera The Gruffalo, and A German-Yiddish Cantata. Iván Fischer was honored with the Kossuth Prize, Hungary’s most prestigious cultural award, in 2006 and received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2011. He is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, and an Honorary Citizen of Budapest and Vicenza.

Lucerne Festival (IMF) debut on 26 August 1986 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in music by Liszt and Schubert.

May 2026