National Symphony Orchestra Washington
Orchestras
Now beginning its 78th season, the National Symphony Orchestra regularly participates in events of national and international importance, including performances for state occasions, presidential inaugurations and official holiday celebrations. Through its tours of four continents and performances for heads of state, the National Symphony also fills an important international role.
Officially founded in 1931, throughout its history the Orchestra has been committed to both artistic excellence and music education. In 1986 the National Symphony became the artistic affiliate of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the nation's center for the performing arts, where it has presented a concert season annually since the Center opened in 1971. The Orchestra itself numbers 100 musicians, presenting a 52-week season of approximately 175 concerts each year. These include classical subscription series, pops concerts, and one of the country's most extensive educational programs.
The National Symphony Orchestra has a strong commitment to the development of America's artistic resources. Through the John and June Hechinger Commissioning Fund for New Orchestral Works, the Orchestra has commissioned more than 60 works, including cycles of fanfares and encores, which, taken as a whole, are representative of the diverse influences in American composition today. The National Symphony has long been distinguished for its nurturing of young American conductors; that commitment was reinforced between 2000 and 2008, with the National Conducting Institute. Former Music Director Leonard Slatkin served as founder and director of the Institute throughout its duration.
Another important project is the National Symphony Orchestra American Residencies for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which has so far taken the NSO to 18 states. This venture encompasses sharing all elements of classical symphonic music with a specific state, exploring its diversity of musical influences, and giving the state a musical voice in the nation's center for the performing arts through exchanges, training programs, and commissions.
Throughout its history, the National Symphony Orchestra has served the nation through tours, broadcasts, and other special projects.
Season 2009/2010
Ivan Fischer, Principal Conductor
National Symphony Orchestra Principal Conductor Iván Fischer has been Music Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra since he founded the celebrated ensemble in 1983. He became Principal Guest Conductor of the NSO in the 2006-07 season, and this season became Principal Conductor. Born in Budapest in 1951, Mr. Fischer is one in a long line of important conductors to spring from the rich musical ground of Hungary, along with Fritz Reiner, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, István Kertesz, Georg Solti, Ferenc Fricsay, Sándor Vógh, the NSO's third music director Antal Dorati, and several members of Mr. Fischer's own family. He first achieved public acclaim outside his native land, but returned to participate in the cultural renaissance that began in Hungary in the 1980s and caught fire with the fall of the Iron Curtain.
The partnership of Mr. Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) is one of today's great success stories. Mr. Fischer developed intense rehearsal methods for the musicians, emphasizing chamber music and creative work for each orchestra member. Soon after the orchestra's founding, Mr. Fischer and the BFO were touring internationally, and a series of acclaimed recordings for Philips Classics further showcased their remarkable chemistry. The orchestra has appeared in Athens, Cologne, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, Lucerne, New York, Paris, Salzburg, Vienna, and numerous venues in Japan and China. The extraordinary achievements of the BFO have contributed to Mr. Fischer's reputation as a visionary and singularly inspiring orchestra leader. His innovative youth concerts with the orchestra are enormously popular at home and have been a prominent feature of his tenure in Washington.
Mr. Fischer opens the 25th-anniversary season of the Budapest Festival Orchestra with the fourth annual Budapest Mahlerfest—this year including world premieres of two works commissioned by the Mahlerfest from Hungarian composers: Miklés Csemiczky's Scherzo all'ongarese and Lászlé Dubrovay's Hungarian Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra. After a short European tour with BFO, he leads three consecutive weeks of concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra. In early November he and the BFO play three performances of Mozart's Così fan tutte in the Canary Islands. Their Budapest calendar also includes regular "Cocoa Concerts," one-hour programs designed especially for children.
The current season includes a New Year's concert in Budapest, followed by a concert in Vienna, a Brahms recording with BFO, and a U.S. tour—including a Carnegie Hall appearance. The BFO will also visit France and Italy, perform their second opera of this season (Le nozze di Figaro), and recording the Brahms Symphony No. 2 for Channel Classics. Mr. Fischer will appear with the NSO for one more subscription week this season, and will also participate in the NSO's Arkansas Residency. As guest conductor his 2008-9 schedule includes an all-Beethoven program with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and pianist Radu Lupu.
Last season Mr. Fischer made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic during Salzburg's Mozartwoche, and led the BFO in concert at Lincoln Center. He led the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Bach's Saint Matthew Passion, spent several weeks with the NSO and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and led a BFO European Tour. He devoted nearly a month to England's Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, focusing on "The Eve of Revolution: Paris" with works by Haydn, Mozart and Rameau.
A frequent guest of major orchestras, Mr. Fischer made his U.S. debut conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1983. He has led the orchestras of Berlin, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Paris, Munich, Dresden, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. He has conducted Mozart at the Glyndebourne Festival and in concert at the BBC Proms with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, of which he was named a principal artist along with Simon Rattle and Vladimir Jurowski (the OAE having no principal conductor).
Iván Fischer, nominated for Gramophone's 2008 Artist of the Year award, has a wide-ranging discography, now recording with the Budapest Festival Orchestra exclusively for Channel Classics. Their most recent release is the Beethoven Symphony No. 7, and they have also recorded three Mahler symphonies: the Second—which earned a 2007 Editor's Choice Gramophone award—the Sixth, and the Fourth, to be released this season. Other recordings have been similarly praised and recognized, including Richard Strauss' Josefs Legende, Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony, and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. The Fischer/BFO Barték recordings on Philips Classics, especially The Miraculous Mandarin, have won multiple prizes. Channel has also released an all-Dvorák disc, and Mr. Fischer's Glyndebourne DVD of Mozart's Così fan tutte was nominated for a Gramophone award.
Mr. Fischer has led Mozart productions at the Vienna State Opera and has also conducted the major opera companies of Brussels, Budapest, Frankfurt, London, Paris, and Zurich. He was music director of the Opóra National de Lyon from 2000 to 2003.
Maestro Fischer studied piano, violin, cello, and composition in Budapest, continuing his education in Vienna, where he was in Hans Swarowsky's conducting class. Mr. Fischer also studied cello and early music while he was Nikolaus Harnoncourt's assistant. His international career was launched when he won the Rupert Foundation Conducting Competition in 1976, at the age of 25. Mr. Fischer is a founder of the Hungarian Mahler Society and the Patron of Britain's Kodály Academy. He received the Golden Medal Award from the president of the Republic of Hungary, and the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum for his services to help international cultural relations. In 2005 he was named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and in 2006 he received Hungary's most prestigious arts award, the Kossuth Prize.
season 2009/2010
