Martin Fischer-Dieskau
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Martin Fischer-Dieskau (born 1951) is a German conductor.
Fischer-Dieskau was born in Berlin to a musical family; his father is the noted singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Fischer-Dieskau's older brother, Mathias, is a highly regarded stage designer, and his younger brother, Manuel, is a cellist. Fischer-Dieskau claims that his desire to be a conductor dates from 1961, when he and his older brother visited a rehearsal of Don Giovanni at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in which his father was starring. However, growing up in the Fischer-Dieskau family was not easy for Martin, whose mother, cellist Irmgard Poppen, died in 1963 when he was 12 years old. According to an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail, "Autocracy is a personal issue with Fischer-Dieskau, who had daily experience of it while growing up. His father is renowned baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who had a Prussian upbringing and a Prussian view if how things ought to be run. 'He was a very strong father and he was always the boss,' he said. Like many sons, he rebelled not by battling his father on his own terms, but by rejecting his authoritarian example." Still, he said in another interview, "in terms of becoming a musical person, and getting to love music, that couldn't have been easier and better than to grow up in this family."
He studied conducting, violin and piano in Vienna, Berlin and Siena. He participated in masterclasses with Franco Ferrara, Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein. From 1976 to 1977 he was a laureate in the German Music League's National Selection of Young Artists, and in 1978 and 1988 was awarded scholarships by the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship Program at Tanglewood. In the 1978/79 season, he was assistant conductor to Antal Dorati at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. After positions in Augsburg, Aachen and Hagen, Martin Fischer-Dieskau became principal conductor at Theater Bern in 1991. He was guest conductor at festivals in Helsinki and Granada, and served as artistic director of the 1993 Youth Festival at Bayreuth. He has held a professorship in conducting at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen since 1995. He has produced and hosted his own television series of eleven musical “tours” that were telecast throughout Germany.
From June 1, 2001 to November 2003, he served as artistic director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
Recordings:
Concert for Lidice (BIS-CD-578) Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, New Berlin Chamber Orchestra
Humperdinck: Moorish Rhapsody/Sleeping Beauty (Naxos 8.223369) Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
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[edit] Kitchener-Waterloo symphony controversy
During his tenure as director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, he planned to take the orchestra on a tour of several German cities in the fall of 2004. This idea was questioned by some members of the orchestra's board, who voiced concerns over the proposed cost.
These discussions became increasingly acrimonious, and on November 27, 2003 the board removed Fischer-Dieskau from all his responsibilities with the orchestra. Fischer-Dieskau argued this action was unjustified and violated his contract, and the ensuing debate triggered a long-lasting and very public spat between Fischer-Dieskau and his supporters among the orchestra's patrons and those who supported his removal.
This ultimately led to the mass resignation of the orchestra's board, followed by a new election in April 2004 in which Fischer-Dieskau's reinstatement was the dominant issue. A majority of the newly-elected board agreed that Fischer-Dieskau's dismissal was unfair , and the board resumed negotiations with Fischer-Dieskau. However, Fischer-Dieskau did not accept one of the board's conditions for his reinstatement: that he share conducting duties with conductor Simon Streatfeild, who had been hired after his dismissal, and so he was not reinstated as artistic director.
The controversy garnered significant media attention, including front-page stories in the regional daily newspaper The Record, for over a year.
