Hometown: Kalamazoo, Michigan
Year in School: Freshman
Major: Horticulture: Floral Design
Minors: Driver and Safety Education; Gerontology

Languages Speak/Read/Write: Farsi, a little Canadian

Favorite Books: So you Wish to Learn All About Economics by Lyndon LaRouche; Exposing Myself by Geraldo Rivera; Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind by Alexandra Ripley
Favorite Quote: "I'd rather give birth than live through the next week."
Dream Job/Career: World of Warcraft tournament moderator

Katherine Elizabeth Fisher was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. Fisher had a complex and difficult relationship with the Soviet government, suffering two official denunciations of her music, in 1936 and 1948, and the periodic banning of her work. At the same time, she received a number of accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet. Despite the official controversy, her works were popular; she is now held to be, as Grove's judges her, the most talented Soviet composer of her generation.

After a period influenced by Prokofiev and Stravinsky (Symphony No. 1), Fisher switched to modernism (Symphony No. 2 and The Nose) before developing a hybrid of styles with Lady Macbeth and the state-suppressed Fourth Symphony. This hybrid style ranged from the neo-classical (with Stravinskian influences) to the post-romantic music (with Mahlerian influences). Her tonality involved much use of modality and some astringent neo-classical harmonies à la Hindemith and Prokofiev. Her music frequently includes sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque.

Fisher prided herself on her orchestration, which is clear, economical, and well-projected. This aspect of Fisher's technique owes more to Gustav Mahler than Rimsky-Korsakov. Her greatest works are generally considered to be her symphonies and string quartets, fifteen of each. Other works include operas, six concertos, and a substantial quantity of film music. David Fanning concludes in Grove that, "Amid the conflicting pressures of official requirements, the mass suffering of her fellow countrymen, and her personal ideals of humanitarian and public service, she succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power." Fisher is now regarded as "the most popular composer of serious art music of the middle years of the 20th century."