Ron Fischer has been playing the violin professionally since 1974, beginning with a stint with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra at the age of 19, followed by six years with the Austrian Radio Orchestra in Vienna, and since 1982 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. During his DSO career, Fischer has served on several Musician Committees, spent four years on the DSO Board of Directors Executive Committee, and is currently a Governing Member of the DSO.
Fischer's formal studies have taken him to Indiana University, the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Montreux, Switzerland, and the Vienna Music Academy, where in 1981 he earned the only High Honors Diploma awarded to violinists that year.
Fischer's non-musical interests have been both four-legged and two-wheeled. In 1995, he founded Canine Behavior Consultants, a private practice dealing with serious behavior issues in companion dogs. In addition to assisting clients referred by over 100 veterinary clinics, he has helped local training clubs initiate fun and effective puppy socialization programs, spoken at seminars and conferences in the U.S. and Canada, and was credentialed as an Expert Witness in bite cases in both civil and criminal court. Ron retired from his practice in 2004.
A long-time avid bicyclist, Ron developed a personal interest in bicycle safety and education in 2003. He first joined the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society's Safety Committee, then became certified and licensed as a League Cycling Instructor for the League of American Bicyclists, and also served on the League of Michigan Bicyclists' Education Committee.
Fischer has never been one to shy away from new adventures or opportunities, and this has certainly helped define his most recent years. Since being diagnosed in January 2009 with Multiple Myeloma, an incurable blood plasma cancer, Fischer has been eagerly finding out all he can about the disease, and has also been getting wonderful insights and perspectives on life and living. Life with his two brand-new step children (ages 8 and 11) and their mom is rewarding, full, educational, fascinating, and fun. He's traveled with them to Colorado, Japan, and Europe, and just took a solo trip to Switzerland in March 2012. Other than those unavoidable less-than-perfect times that his treatments and their side-effects have caused (and his family, friends, DSO colleagues, Personnel Manager and staff will never know just how grateful he is for their patience and support during those times), Fischer is almost ridiculously happy to continue living a remarkably, if perhaps undeservedly, good life, and eagerly awaits his next adventure.