Robin Fisher

Soprano Robin Fisher has performed to critical acclaim in such cities as Paris, Vienna, Prague, Hamburg, Chicago and Dallas. Press reviews remark on her “amazingly precise coloratura, melting diminuendi, splendid high notes and delightful musicality” (Opernwelt) and her “mature timbre and total self-assurance…. an extremely exciting singer-actress” (Westdeutsche Zeitung).

A native of California, Dr. Fisher began vocal studies at San José State University and went on to graduate from Smith College cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She won both the prestigious Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship and a Rotary Foundation Award to pursue studies in Europe and received the coveted Artist's Diploma cum laude from the University of Vienna. She holds a D.M.A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Fisher joined the Sacramento State University School of Music in 2003, where she teaches numerous courses in Vocal Performance. She holds the highest rank of Full Professor. Her concert schedule includes annual recitals and performances as part of the Festival of New American Music on campus, and frequent collaborations with other faculty and student ensembles in concert, as well as appearances off campus with leading ensembles. Dr. Fisher has taught courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels including Applied Voice, Diction (Italian, German, French), Vocal Pedagogy, Song  Literature, Career Planning for Singers, and a weekly studio class for performance practice. She founded and led “Empowering Singers” in Sacramento as an intensive workshop to join voice study with the Alexander Technique. Over 100 singers from the greater metropolitan area participated.

In 2013, Dr. Fisher founded Lingua e Canto, a summer intensive for young singers to study the Italian language, opera performance and vocal technique. Over 100 singers from all over the country experienced music and language in Italy over the five years this program was offered with exceptional instruction from a team of leading teacher-artists. In 2022, Dr. Fisher led the CSU Summer Arts Study Abroad Program on the topic of the Romantic German Lied at the University of Music in Trossingen.

Her voice students have been winners in major regional competitions and received scholarships to attend such prestigious post-baccalaureate programs as the San Francisco Conservatory, Cincinnati College Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Bard College, UCLA and the Manhattan School of Music. Many have completed young artist programs in the United States and abroad, including the Merola program, Music Academy of the West, Seattle Opera Studio, and the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her students are featured soloists in regional opera and concert, and several sing professionally in Europe and the United States.

Most recently, she performed a concert of American art songs with pianist, Hatem Nadim, at the Vielsaitig Festival in Füssen, Germany, and the soprano solos in Beethoven's Mass in C major with the CSUS orchestra and chorus. Dr. Fisher's many recital appearances in both Europe and the United States attest to her love for the art song. Most recently, she was a guest artist at Mannheim University in Germany to perform a program of American art songs and present masterclasses. Her recordings include God Be in My Heart with pianist Dalton Baldwin, The Nightingale Sings with Laurel Zucker, flutist, and Gershwin songs with pianist Richard Glazier on Pure Imagination.

Together with scholar Ruth Friedberg, Dr. Fisher published a revised edition of American Art Song & American Poetry in 2012 (published by Rowman & Littlefield) with a foreword by baritone Thomas Hampson. Together with Friedberg, Dr. Fisher also published The Selected Writings of John Duke in 2007 (Scarecrow Press) with a foreword by composer Ned Rorem. She is a frequent presenter at regional and national conferences, and leads workshops that focus on art song interpretation and vocal technique.