Saale Fischer
b. October 10, 1979 TallinnMember of the Association of Estonian Professional Musicians since 2012
Member of the Estonian Harpsichord Society since 2000
After graduating from Tallinn Techincal University (BA, 2005) she furthered her studies in Early Music and harpsichord at Tallinn Georg Ots Music School (teacher Reinut Tepp), Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (BA in 2007, prof. Imbi Tarum) and at the Musikhochschule Trossingen in Germany (MA in 2010, prof. Marieke Spaans). She has taken part in several masterclasses for harpsichord and chamber music with Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Jaques Ogg, Miklós Spanyi, Blandine Verlet, and Ketil Haugsand, and obtained private tutoring in organ playing with Dr Eberhard Schulz in Germany. Presently, Saale is a PhD student at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
In recent years, Saale’s creative output has been compiled of concert performances and organization, teaching and writing. In 2014, she co-founded the Estonian baroque ensemble Floridante. Initially comprised of four members, Floridante today involves a few dozen Estonian musicians with a passion for Early Music. As a soloist and continuo-player of Floridante, Saale has been performing harpsichord, organ, and fortepiano in programs from nuove musiche, French baroque, Bach & Händel, Empfindsamkeit, to early Romanticism. Among others, a program of yet undiscovered Baltic-German lied-composers was undertaken in cooperation with the Estonian National Library. Her concert activities have taken her to Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, Russia, Belgium, Holland. Additionally, she has given lectures on historical performance practice in Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, and the USA.
Saale has translated vocal texts, published concert reviews, essays, and interviews on of numerous Estonian culture magazines, among others, she has interviewed Early Music figures like dame Emma Kirkby, Andrew Lawrence-King, Mahan Esfahani. She is the founding editor of the collection “The Contemporary Harpsichordist I & II” (2014) and author of travelogue “My Cairo” (2014).
Saale is a devoted teacher as well. In 2010, together with the Estonian Embassy in Egypt, she initiated a musical playgroup for Estonian-speaking children in Cairo. At the same time, she worked as a music teacher at the Cairo International PReschool ‘Kompass’. Between 2014–2018, Saale led her own piano studio in Tallinn and taught music to upper secondary students at the Tallinn European School. Between 2017–2019, she taught harpsichord and chamber music at the children’s summer course near Tallinn.
Since 2019, Saale is the program manager of one of the oldest and renowned festivals in the Baltic region, the Haapsalu Early Music Festival.
Saale has been awarded scholarships from the Nordic Council of Ministers and Estonian Cultural Endowment.
Saale Fischer's homepage
EMIC 2015
(updated September 2019)