BIOGRAPHY

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RICHARD FLEISCHMAN, violist
Having performed and taught in twenty countries around the world, Richard Fleischman has received numerous honors, most notably the Windsor Prize, personally awarded to him by Leonard Bernstein; and the Edward Steuermann Memorial Prize, the highest award bestowed by The Juilliard School.
His biography reads like a virtual Who’s Who in Classical Music of the last 40 years.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, his extensive career over the last 40 years as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and pedagogue has brought him much acclaim.

Born in New York City, Mr. Fleischman was awarded a Naumberg Scholarship to The Juilliard School at the age of 16, receiving the Pre-College Diploma, (studies with Eugene Becker) and then the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in a total of four years. There he studied with William Lincer, (Principal Violist of the New York Philharmonic 1942-1972) eventually becoming his teaching assistant. He also studied chamber music at Juilliard with cellist Leonard Rose, flutist Julius Baker and the Juilliard String Quartet.
Further studies were with legendary musicians Joseph De Pasquale and Felix Galimir at the Curtis Institute of Music. He studied conducting with the legendary maestros Max Rudolf (Metropolitan Opera) in Philadelphia and Sergiu Celibidache (Berlin Philharmonic) in Germany; and composition with Vincent Persichetti in New York.
An active performer internationally, nationally and locally, he has performed as viola and viola d'amore soloist with many orchestras and given recitals all over the USA. From 1990 until 2019, he served as solo violist of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and from 2010 until 2022 he served in the same capacity with the Miami City Ballet Orchestra. He has performed as principal violist for an array of conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Sergiu Celibidache, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Sir Andrew Davis, Edo DeWaart, Stephane Deneve, Vladimir Jurowski, Charles Dutoit, and David Robertson, and has recorded for Naxos Records, London/Decca, Sony and Centaur labels among others.
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He was a member of the San Francisco Symphony from 1990-1995, and recorded more than 20 CDs with them, including several of their Grammy Award-winning recordings. At the invitation of Maestro Edo DeWaart, he was Guest Principal Violist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic from 2005-2007. He has also performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Muti and Rafael Frübeck de Bourgos.
He is the recipient of a 2018 Grammy Award for his participation as solo violist in the world premiere of the opera "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs" with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra.
From 2006-2017 he was violist of the Delray String Quartet and was influential in securing commissions for new works from Grammy Award-winning American composers Kenneth Fuchs and Richard Danielpour. His recordings with the Delrays were released on Naxos and Centaur record labels. He has appeared with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Pensacola Chamber Music Festival and was a co-founder of the Laurel Festival of the Arts in Pennsylvania.
As a teacher, Mr. Fleischman's viola students have achieved great success world-wide and occupy orchestra principal positions and academic positions at conservatories and universities around the world. As the Viola Professor at the New World School of the Arts in Miami since 1996, he has taught, given masterclasses and adjudicated competitions throughout the USA, South America, Europe and Asia. He recently gave a series of viola master classes at the China National Conservatory in Beijing.
​In 2015, Mr. Fleischman founded "ViolaFest Miami,” an annual community event for young viola players.