Iván Fischer's international career was launched when he won the Rupert Foundation Conducting Competition at the age of 25, following which he was invited to conduct all the major British orchestras. Born into a musical Hungarian family, he learned piano, violin and cello in Budapest before studying in Vienna, where he graduated from Hans Swarowsky's famous conducting class. He became interested in early music and worked closely with Nikolaus Harnoncourt as harpsichordist and conductor.

In 1983, he founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with his compatriot Zoltan Kocsis. The success of this new orchestra was quickly recognised by audiences and critics throughout the world and the orchestra has since appeared in Salzburg, Lucerne, Paris, Vienna, London, Frankfurt, Cologne, New York, Los Angeles, Japan and Athens. A recent collaboration has included a series of three concerts which include all the major Bartok stage works (Wooden Prince, Miraculous Mandarin and Bluebeard's Castle), performed in Paris Cologne, Frankfurt, Vienna, Brussels (as part of the Flanders Festival) and New York. Because the BFO are able to offer ideal recording/rehearsal conditions Philips have recently signed an exclusive recording contract with Iván Fischer under which they will be recording all the Bartok works. Fischer's Bartok recordings with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Zoltan Kocsis for Philips have received the MUM Prize and the Erasmus Prize, and his recording of The Miraculous Mandarin has been awarded the CHOC award by La Monde de Musique. Other recordings for Philips include the Liszt "Faust Symphony" and the 6 Hungarian Rhapsodies.

Iván Fischer appears as a guest conductor with major orchestras throughout the world, including Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, London Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, NHK Symphony, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St Louis, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has also held the position of Principal Guest Conductor of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

As an opera conductor he has worked with companies in London, Paris, Brussels, Zurich, Frankfurt and Budapest and conducted a number of Mozart productions with the Vienna State Opera. He also served as Music Director of Kent Opera between 1984 and 1989.

His discography also includes recordings for Decca, CBS, CBS Sony, Hungaroton and Harmonia Mundi.