Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss | |
|---|---|
 Foss in 1960 | |
| Born | Lukas Fuchs August 15, 1922 |
| Died | February 1, 2009(aged 86) New York City,U.S. |
| Nationality | German-American |
| Alma mater | Curtis Institute of Music |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Lukas Foss(August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, andconductor.
Career
[edit]Born Lukas Fuchs inBerlin,Germanyin 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with Julius Goldstein [Herford] in Berlin at the age of six. His parents were Hilde (Schindler) and the philosopher and scholarMartin Foss.He moved with his family to Paris in 1933, where he studied piano withLazare Lévy,composition withNoël Gallon,orchestrationwithFelix Wolfes,and flute withMarcel Moyse.In 1937 he moved with his parents and brother to the United States, where his father (on advice from the Quakers who had taken the family in upon arrival in Philadelphia) changed the family name to Foss. He studied at theCurtis Institute of MusicinPhiladelphia,withIsabelle Vengerova(piano),Rosario Scalero(composition) andFritz Reiner(conducting).
At Curtis, Foss began a lifelong friendship with classmateLeonard Bernstein,who later described Foss as an "authentic genius." In 1961 Bernstein conducted the premiere of Foss'sTime Cycle,while Foss would conduct the premiere of Bernstein's Symphonic Dances fromWest Side Story.[1]
Foss also studied withSerge Koussevitzkyduring the summers from 1939 to 1943 at theBerkshire Music Center(now known as the Tanglewood Music Center) and, as a special student, composition withPaul HindemithatYale Universityfrom 1939 to 1940.[2]He became an American citizen in 1942.[3]
Foss was appointed professor of music atUCLAin 1953, replacingArnold Schoenberg.While there he founded theImprovisation Chamber Ensemble,which made its Boston debut in 1962 for thePeabody Mason Concertseries.[4]He founded theCenter of the Creative and Performing Artsin 1963 while at theState University of New York at Buffalo.
Over six separate years from 1961 to 1987, Foss was the music director of theOjai Music Festival.From 1963 to 1970 he was music director of theBuffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.From 1971 to 1988 he was music director of theBrooklyn Philharmonic(formerly Brooklyn Philharmonia). From 1981 to 1986, he was conductor of theMilwaukee Symphony Orchestra.[2]He was a professor of music, theory, and composition atBoston Universitybeginning in 1991. His notable students includeFaye-Ellen Silverman,Claire PolinandRocco Di Pietro.[3]
Foss is grouped in the "Boston school"along withArthur Berger,Irving Fine,Alexei Haieff,Harold Shapero,andClaudio Spies.[3]He was a National Patron ofDelta Omicron,an international professional music fraternity.[5][failed verification]In 2000 he was awarded a Gold Medal by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Compositions
[edit]Notable students
[edit]Personal life
[edit]In 1951 Foss marriedCornelia Brendel,an artist and painter who was born in Berlin in 1931, the daughter of art historianOtto BrendelandMaria Weigert Brendel.[6]The couple had two children, Christopher Brendel Foss, who became a documentary filmmaker and corporate consultant on social and environmental engagement/sustainability communications, and Eliza Foss Topol, an actress. Foss and his wife were separated for almost five years from 1968 to 1972, during which Cornelia was the lover of pianistGlenn Gouldand moved with the two children to Toronto, an arrangement that she later called, "a perfect triangle".[7]
Foss, who hadParkinson's diseasein his final years, died at his home inManhattanon February 1, 2009, aged 86, of a heart attack.[3]
References
[edit]- ^Rubin, Susan G: Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein (2011). Watertown, MA. Charlesbridge.ISBN9781580893442.Page 142-3.
- ^ab"Obituary for Composer Lukas Foss".Opera News.Vol. 74, no. 1. July 2009.
- ^abcdAllan Kozinn (March 29, 1998)."Lukas Foss, Composer at Home in Many Stylistic Currents, Dies at 86".New York Times.RetrievedJune 20,2009.
- ^Christian Science Monitor,23 March 1962, Louis Chapin, "Lukas Foss at Sanders", Boston
- ^"Welcome | Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity".March 3, 2016. Archived fromthe originalon March 3, 2016.
- ^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.
- ^Hampson, Sarah(29 November 2009)."Christopher Foss grew up with Glenn Gould, but never got to say goodbye".The Globe and Mail.Retrieved17 April2016.
External links
[edit]- Lukas Foss' page at Carl Fischer
- Allmusic: Lukas Foss
- Humanities Web: Lukas Foss IndexArchived2006-04-24 at theWayback Machine
- CDeMusic: Lukas Foss
- New Albion Artists: Lukas Foss
- Lukas Foss: A Twentieth-Century Composer's Confessions about the Creative Processat theWayback Machine(archived October 11, 2001)
- Art of the States: Lukas Foss
- Lucas Foss Collectionat theLibrary of Congress
Interviews
[edit]- Lukas Foss interviewbyGabrielle Zuckerman,fromAmerican Maverickssite
- Lukas Foss interviewbyTerry Gross,fromFresh Airprogram, originally broadcast October 7, 1987
- Interview with Lukas Fossby Bruce Duffie, February 2, 1987
- 1922 births
- 2009 deaths
- 20th-century classical composers
- 20th-century American composers
- 20th-century German composers
- 20th-century American conductors (music)
- 20th-century American male musicians
- 21st-century classical composers
- 21st-century American composers
- 21st-century German composers
- 21st-century American male musicians
- American male classical composers
- American classical composers
- American male conductors (music)
- Ballet composers
- American contemporary classical music performers
- German classical composers
- German male classical composers
- German conductors (music)
- German male conductors (music)
- Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
- Jewish American classical composers
- Music & Arts artists
- Composers from Berlin
- Curtis Institute of Music alumni
- Tanglewood Music Center faculty
- University at Buffalo alumni
- Yale University alumni
- Pupils of Fritz Reiner
- Pupils of Paul Hindemith
- Pupils of Rosario Scalero
- 20th-century American Jews
- 21st-century American Jews
- Fulbright alumni