Norma Fisher

Norma Fisher is acclaimed internationally as one of the UK’s leading pianists and teachers.  As a child she was recognised as ‘a rare musical talent’ winning an exhibition, at the age of eleven, to study with Sidney Harrison at the Guildhall School of Music.  At the age of fourteen she came to the attention of the celebrated Greek pianist Gina Bachauer who became her mentor, introducing her to the distinguished Hungarian teacher Ilona Kabos, with whom she subsequently studied. A period was also spent in Paris studying French music with Jacques Fevrier.

Her many, highly acclaimed, early performances for the BBC led to an invitation by the German radio station RIAS, in Berlin, to make her debut with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra - which launched her career in Europe. Success in the Busoni International Piano Competition, as a top prize winner, followed and in 1963, when she shared the much-coveted Piano Prize in the Harriet Cohen International Music Awards with Vladimir Ashkenazy, her international reputation was sealed.  That same year she made her debut at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall and became a favourite soloist with all the leading British orchestras.

Norma Fisher is known for her versatility as a performer. This versatility extends to chamber music, which she plays with leading musicians throughout the world.  Her early relationship with the Dartington, Allegri and Delme String Quartets led to a much sought-after partnership with the Stamic Quartet of Prague. She also performed regularly with the International Chamber Ensemble of Rome, Carmina Quartet and Reykjavik Wind Quintet and partnered such well known soloists as Stephanie Gonley, Alan Hacker, Maurice Hasson, Emanuel Hurwitz, Ralph Kirshbaum, Steven Isserlis, Peter Lukas Graf, Gyorgy Pauk, Hu Kun, Sylvia Rosenberg, Grigori Zhislin, Yossi Zivoni and singers Benjamin Luxon, Sherrill Milnes, Nelly Miricioiu and Sir John Tomlinson.

The CD’s of her recently re-issued BBC recordings, “Norma Fisher at the BBC Vols 1, 2 and 3 have been received with huge international acclaim, each being awarded Editors and Critics Choice by Gramophone Magazine.  Vol. 2 also had the honour of being awarded the 41^st “Grande Prix du Disque” by the Ferenc Liszt Society of Budapest.

Her reputation as a teacher is widely established and many of her top prize-winning students are well known on the international concert circuit. She is a Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music and a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music and is invited to give master classes throughout the world. She is regularly invited on the Jury of leading international piano competitions including Gina Bachauer (USA), Horowitz (Kiev), Joanna Hodges (USA), Boston Grand Amateurs (USA), Newport (Wales), Ricardo Vines (Spain), San Marino (Italy), Sydney (Australia), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Virginia Waring (USA).

She is the Artistic Director of London Master Classes www.londonmasterclasses.com whose courses attract major talent from around the world to work intensively with top performers/teachers in London. London Master Classes has recently celebrated 35 years of offering these prestigious events.