Lukas Foss
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Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009), born Lukas Fuchs, was a German-born American composer, conductor, pianist, and professor.
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[edit] Music career
Lukas Fuchs was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. He studied with Julius Goldstein-Herford. After the rise of Nazism in Germany, he and his family moved to Paris in 1933, where he studied piano with Lazare Lévy, composition with Noël Gallon, orchestration with Felix Wolfes, and flute with Louis Moyse. In 1937 he moved to the United States, where he changed his name to Lukas Foss. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with Isabelle Vengerova (piano), Rosario Scalero (composition) and Fritz Reiner (conducting). He also studied with Sergei Koussevitzky during the summers from 1939 to 1943 at the Berkshire Music Center (now known as the Tanglewood Music Center) and, as a special student, composition with Paul Hindemith at Yale University from 1939 to 1940.[1] He became an American citizen in 1942.[2]
Foss was appointed professor of music at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1953, replacing Arnold Schoenberg. While there he founded the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. He founded the Center for Creative and Performing Arts in 1963 while at the University at Buffalo. From 1963 to 1970 he was Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1981 to 1986, he was conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.[1] He was a Professor of Music, Theory, and Composition at Boston University beginning in 1991. His notable students include Claire Polin and Rocco Di Pietro.[2]
He is grouped in the "Boston school" along with Arthur Berger, Irving Fine, Alexei Haieff, Harold Shapero, and Claudio Spies.[2]
Foss died at his home in Manhattan, New York on February 1, 2009, at the age of 86.[2]
[edit] Compositions
[edit] Notable students
[edit] Personal
- Wife: Cornelia Brendel Foss, artist/painter; born in Berlin in 1931, married in 1951[3]
- Son: Christopher Brendel Foss, advertising executive
- Daughter: Eliza Foss Turino, actress
- Professional Honorary Member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Obituaries: Actors Dom DeLuise and Beatrice Arthur; mezzo Margreta Elkins; soprano Anne Brown, Gershwin’s original Bess; composer Lukas Foss dies at eighty-six.". Opera News. July 2009, vol 74, no. 1. http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/issue/article.aspx?id=5263&issueID=335. Retrieved on June 20, 2009.
- ^ a b c d Allan Kozinn (March 29, 1998). "Lukas Foss, Composer at Home in Many Stylistic Currents, Dies at 86". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/arts/music/02foss.html?_r=2. Retrieved on June 20, 2009.
- ^ Passenger list of the S.S. Volendam, port of New York, 21 September 1939. Passenger list of the S.S. Mauretania, port of New York, 15 October 1951. Revisiting 'The Prairie', The New Yorker, July 23, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Allmusic: Lukas Foss
- Humanities Web: Lukas Foss Index
- CDeMusic: Lukas Foss
- New Albion Artists: Lukas Foss
- Lukas Foss Lecture A Twentieth-Century Composer's Confessions about the Creative Process
- Art of the States: Lukas Foss
[edit] Interviews
- Lukas Foss interview by Gabrielle Zuckerman, from American Mavericks site
- Lukas Foss interview by Terry Gross, from Fresh Air program, originally broadcast October 7, 1987
