Jacobo Ficher

Jacobo Ficher (Russian: Яков (Хакобо) Фишер; 15 January 1896 – 9 September 1978) was an Argentine composer, violinist, conductor, and music educator of Russian birth.

Ficher was born in Odessa, Russia, to Alexander Ficher, a trombonist in the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, and his wife Iente Mirl (Elena) Gotz (Salgado 2010, 3). He began to study the violin at the age of five, but his lessons were interrupted when his mother died. In 1903 he was able to resume his violin studies with Pyotr Stolyarsky, and later with M. T. Hait. From 1912 to 1917 he was enrolled at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he continued his violin studies with Sergei Korguyev and Leopold Auer. His other teachers included Vasily Kalafati, Maximilian Steinberg, Nikolai Tcherepnin, and Nikolay Sokolov.

On 3 June (Gregorian 16 June) 1920 he married Ana Aronberg, then a piano student at the Odessa Conservatory. The Revolution of 1917 was followed by deteriorating conditions in Odessa and so, in order to escape famine and persecution, the family—including his father with his second wife, his youngest brother Rachmiel (who was a cellist) and a sister-in-law—fled the city, traveling at first to Poland. In 1923 they moved to Argentina, arriving on 10 February, and eventually became citizens of that country. Jacobo and Ana had two children: a son, Miguel, born on 24 June 1923, shortly after their arrival in Buenos Aires, and a daughter, Myra, born 7 February 1928. Ana Aronberg Ficher died on 27 July 1976 (Salgado 2010, 3–4, 6–7).

Ficher settled in Buenos Aires, where he was one of the founders in 1929 of the Grupo renovación. Later, in 1947, he was also among the founders of the Argentinian Composers' League (Pan American Union 1956, 58; Salgado 2001.

As an educator, his career began with an appointment in 1943 as professor of Harmony at the Asociación General de Músicos de la Argentina. In 1956 he gained a position teaching composition at the National University of La Plata, where he eventually became professor, and in 1958 he became Professor of Composition at Buenos Aires National Conservatory and Musical Advisor to the Fondo Nacional de las Artes. In 1966 he was appointed Professor of Composition at Buenos Aires Conservatorio Municipal Manuel de Falla, and 1968 he became Professor of Instrumentation at the Teatro Colón's Conservatorio e Instituto (Salgado 2001; Salgado 2010, 5–6). His notable pupils include Emilio Kauderer, Marcelo Koc, Alejandro Viñao, and Ezequiel Viñao

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