Guy Fishman
Principal Cello
Guy Fishman is principal cellist of the Handel and Haydn Society, with which he made his Symphony Hall solo debut in 2005. He is in demand as an early music specialist in the United States and Europe, having performed as principal cellist and with Tafelmusik, Seraphic Fire, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Arcadia Players, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Querelle des Bouffons, Emmanuel Music, the Boston Museum Trio, Boulder Bach Festival, El Mundo, and with Boston Baroque and Apollo’s Fire, among others.
On standard cello, Guy has performed with Bargemusic, Les Violons du Roi, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival, The Mark Morris Dance group, and others. He has appeared in recital with Dawn Upshaw, Mark Peskanov, Eliot Fisk, Richard Eggar, Lara St. John, Gil Kalish, Kim Kashkashian, and Natalie Merchant. His playing has been praised as “plangent” by The Boston Globe, “electrifying” by The New York Times, and “beautiful....noble” by the Boston Herald, and “dazzling” by the Portland Press Herald. The Boston Musical Intelligencer related having “…heard greater depth in [Haydn concerto] than I have in quite some time.”
Guy has recorded for the Olde Focus, CORO, Telarc, Centaur, Titanic, and Newport Classics labels. Recordings of sonatas by Andrea Caporale and duos for cello and bass were warmly received. Vivaldi cello concerti with members of the Handel and Haydn Society were called “brilliant” by the Huffington Post and “a feast for the ears” by Early Music America, which remarked on the “exuberance…adroit sense of phrasing and extraordinary technique…grace and agility” found in his recording with H+H of the cello concerti by CPE Bach.
Guy studied with David Soyer, Peter Wiley, Julia Lichten, and Laurence Lesser, with whom he completed Doctoral studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. In addition, he is a Fulbright Fellow, having worked with famed Dutch cellist Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam. He plays a rare cello made in Rome in 1704 by David Tecchler.
Guy Fishman is a Bach Akademie Charlotte Artistic Leader.
Guy Fishmans’s appearance at the 2024 Charlotte Bach Festival is sponsored by The Chang Family