Norma Fisher

Norma Fisher (born 1940) is an English concert pianist and professor of piano living in London. Illness shortened her performing career in the 1990s and she turned instead to teaching.

Biography Norma Fisher was born in London of Russian-Polish parents. She was soon 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 Février. – and is invited to give masterclasses throughout the world. She has performed and taught at the International Musicians' Seminar in the UK, The International Summer Academy in Lenk, Switzerland and the Horowitz Foundation Summer Music Academy in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is regularly invited on the jury of many leading international piano competitions including Young Musicians (Enschede, Holland), Gina Bachauer (USA), Horowitz (Kyiv, Ukraine), Joanna Hodges (USA), Newport (Wales), Ricardo Vines (Spain), San Marino, Sydney (Australia), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Virginia Waring (USA).

She is artistic director of London Master Classes, whose courses attract major talent from around the world to work intensively with top performers/teachers in London. Brahms: Variations on an Original Theme Op. 21 No. 1 and No.2 Scriabin: Etudes Op. 42 Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 8 Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 1 Volume 2 (2019) focuses on Liszt, Schumann, Debussy and the Polish composer and pianist André Tchaikowsky, a composer Fisher championed. The album was awarded the International Franz Liszt Grand Prix Disc from the Franz Liszt Society of Budapest in 2020. It contains the following works: Schumann: Papillons, Op. 2 Brahms: 7 Fantasies, Op 116 Chopin: Mazurka in C major, Op. 68 No. 1 Chopin: Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op. 41 No. 1 Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No 1 Chopin: 3 Ecossaises, Op. 72 No. 3 Chopin: Berceuse, Op. 57

These recordings have been critically acclaimed: The Gramophone magazine's Editor's Choices (July 2018): Disc review by Michelle Assays Slipped disc (16 April 2018): read here Broadway World (16 April 2018): read here The Telegraph (29 May 2018): read here The Jewish Chronicle (2 June 2018): read here