Abigail Fischer

Versatile mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer’s recent performance in the multi-media opera premiere at The Kitchen in Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar, composed for her and the NOW Ensemble, prompted reviewers to hail her as “riveting” (New York Times), and to remark upon her “throbbing low register and open-hearted performing style” (Wall Street Journal).

In season 2013-14 Abigail Fischer sang Respighi’s Il tramonto and the John Harbison premiere of Crossroads with St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble; Messiah with Asheville Symphony, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and Rhode Island Philharmonic; a double bill of Monteverdi’s “Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” and Beecher’s “I Have No Stories to Tell You” with Gotham Chamber Opera (NYC); Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with Columbus Symphony Orchestra; Richard Strauss’ “Salome” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; and Mozart’s Requiem with Alabama Symphony. She also performed in Europe, Jerusalem, Adelaide, the Met Museum and Lincoln Center Festival singing works of John Zorn to commemorate his 60th birthday. Highlights of Fischer's operatic work include Angelina in La cenerentola with Union Avenue Opera (in Italian) and Salt Marsh Opera (in English), Stéphano in Bel Cantanti Opera’s Roméo et Juliette; Chandler Carter’s opera Strange Fruit, presented by New York City Opera; Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel with New Jersey State Opera; Cherubino in Opera North’s Le nozze di Figaro; Sesto in Arcadia Players’ concert version of La clemenza di Tito; roles in Lee Hoiby’s This is the Rill Speaking with American Opera Projects; Peter Westergaard’s Alice in Wonderland with Center for Contemporary Opera; and Mère Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites and Mrs. Lovett in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Eastman Opera Theater.

Highlights of her early music performances include Bach’s Magnificat; the North American premiere of Lotti’s Mass for Three Choirs; the role of Cleophas in Handel’s La resurrezione with American Bach Soloists; Dido in Dido and Aeneas with Bronx Opera; soloist with Trinity Wall Street Choir and the Rebel Baroque Orchestra, performing Mozart’s Mass in C and Handel’s Messiah, and the roles of Musica and Speranza in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, with Steven Osgood, at the Wintergreen Festival.

In concert Fischer has performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Adelphi Symphony Orchestra; Mozart’s Requiem with the American Classical Orchestra; segments from Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along in a Sondheim tribute with the Boston Pops, under the baton of Keith Lockhart; and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Eastman Orchestra.

Fischer has given the world premieres of Elliott Carter’s Mad Regales and Bernard Rands’ Walcott Songs at Tanglewood Music Festival; John Zorn’s Madrigals, Holy Visions, and Shir Ha-Shirim, with Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed; Bang on a Can’s Lost Objects at Brooklyn Academy of Music; Ted Hearne’s Katrina Ballads, released as a full-length album on New Amsterdam Records/NAXOS and performed at New York City Opera’s VOX Festival; and Nico Muhly’s Mothertongue and Elements of Style, performed at Lincoln Center.

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music (MM) and Vassar College (BA), Abigail Fischer has studied with Drew Minter, Carol Webber, Irene Gubrud, Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs, and Patricia McCaffrey. She has attended University of Cincinnati’s Lucca Opera Festival, Ferrandou Singing School under the direction of David Wilson-Johnson, Opera North, Madison Early Music Festival, Stephen Stubb’s Accademia d’Amore, Lucerne Festival Academy under the instruction of Pierre Boulez, Songfest, Aspen Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, and has been a resident artist at the Banff Centre. Fischer is a trained classical and Baroque cellist, and received a Certificate in Italian Language and Literature from Istituto Lorenzo di Medici in Florence.