Saale Fischer (1979) is an Estonian harpsichordist, music educator, and author.
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. In 2020, Saale obtained a Ph.D. degree from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre where she successfully defended her thesis „Tempo and Rhetorical Timing in Performance of the 17th and 18th Century Instrumental Music“.
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. Go to Floridante website.
Saale has translated vocal texts, published concert reviews, essays, and interviews in numerous Estonian culture magazines, among others, she has interviewed Early Music figures like dame Emma Kirkby, Andrew Lawrence-King, Mahan Esfahani, Jean Rondeau, and Jordi Savall. She is the founding editor of the collection “The Contemporary Harpsichordist I & II” (2014) and author of the travelogue “My Cairo” (2014). Additionally, she has given (concert-)lectures on historical performance practice in Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, and the USA.
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 2020, she teaches music at the Estonian School in Erfurt, at the European School RheinMain, and at the Diocese of Fulda.
Currently based in Germany, Saale Fischer continues to participate in Estonian cultural life. Since 2019, Saale is the program manager of one of the oldest and renowned festivals in the Baltic region, the Haapsalu Early Music Festival. Go to Haapsalu Early Music Festival website. Since 2021, she works as a part-time music editor for Kirjastus Avita. In 2022, she will act as a guest producer for Estonian state concert agency Eesti Kontsert.
Saale has been awarded scholarships from the Nordic Council of Ministers and Estonian Cultural Endowment.