Richard Fleischman

Richard Fleischman (born 1963) is an American violist and viola d'amore player, conductor and pedagogue.

[3] At age 16, he was accepted at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, where he studied viola with Eugene Becker and chamber music with flutist Julius Baker and legendary cellist Leonard Rose.

At Juilliard, he studied viola with William Lincer, long-time principal violist of the New York Philharmonic and was his teaching assistant during 1984–85.

In 1988, Fleischman appeared as viola soloist on live German television on the ZDF program Doppelpunkt.

Recital appearances have include important venues in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Miami.

[8] From the Philadelphia Inquirer (1987):"*Many pieces have been written for the viola d'amore...but the early-music movement has largely bypassed this instrument, and even such acknowledged masterpieces as Vivaldi's four concerti for it are seldom heard live.

All the more pleasure, then, to hear violist Richard Fleischman bring out its delicate, silvery tone in the concerto RV 393 - especially in so expert and sensitive a performance.

He was a member of the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Herbert Blomstedt (1990–1995) During this period, he recorded 20 CDs for London/Decca, including the Complete Symphonies of Jean Sibelius, works of Richard Strauss, Mahler, Beethoven, Bartok, Berwald, Hindemith, Brahms, Orff and Mendelssohn Since 1990, Fleischman has been principal violist of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra for 22 seasons, playing many of the great viola solos of the opera repertoire, such as Britten's Peter Grimes, Berg's Wozzeck and Strauss' Arabella.

[1] At the invitation of Edo De Waart, he was Guest Principal violist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic from 2005 to 2007.