Lukas Foss


Lukas Foss was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor.

Career

Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with Julius Goldstein in Berlin at the age of six. His parents were Hilde and the philosopher and scholar Martin Foss. In 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power, the Jewish family moved from Germany to Paris, where Lukas studied piano with Lazare Lévy, composition with Noël Gallon, orchestration with Felix Wolfes, and flute with Marcel Moyse. In 1937 he moved with his parents and brother to the United States, where his father changed the family name to Foss. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with Isabelle Vengerova, Rosario Scalero and Fritz Reiner.
At Curtis, Foss began a lifelong friendship with classmate Leonard Bernstein, who later described Foss as an "authentic genius." In 1961 Bernstein conducted the premiere of Foss's Time Cycle, while Foss would conduct the premiere of Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
Foss also studied with Serge Koussevitzky during the summers from 1939 to 1943 at the Berkshire Music Center and, as a special student, composition with Paul Hindemith at Yale University from 1939 to 1940. He became an American citizen in 1942.
Foss was appointed professor of music at UCLA in 1953, replacing Arnold Schoenberg. While there he founded the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble, which made its Boston debut in 1962 for the Peabody Mason Concert series. He founded the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in 1963 while at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Over six separate years from 1961 to 1987, Foss was the music director of the Ojai Music Festival. From 1963 to 1970 he was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1971 to 1988 he was music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, while also music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra from 1972 to 1976. From 1981 to 1986, he was conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He was a professor of music, theory, and composition at Boston University beginning in 1991. In 1994, he conducted a concert in the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series. His students include Lauren Bernofsky, Faye-Ellen Silverman, Ivana Themmen, Claire Polin and Rocco Di Pietro.
Foss is grouped in the "Boston school" along with Arthur Berger, Irving Fine, Alexei Haieff, Harold Shapero, and Claudio Spies. He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. In 2000 he was awarded a Gold Medal by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Compositions

Notable students

Personal life

In 1951 Foss married Cornelia Brendel, an artist and painter who was born in Berlin in 1931, the daughter of art historian Otto Brendel and Maria Weigert Brendel. 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 pianist Glenn Gould and moved with the two children to Toronto, an arrangement that she later called, "a perfect triangle".
Foss, who had Parkinson's disease in his final years, died at his home in Manhattan on February 1, 2009, aged 86, of a heart attack.

Interviews

  • Lukas Foss interview by Cole Gagne and Tracy Caras in Soundpieces: Interviews with American Composers. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1982.
  • by Gabrielle Zuckerman, from American Mavericks site
  • by Terry Gross, from Fresh Air program, originally broadcast October 7, 1987
  • by Bruce Duffie, February 2, 1987
  • Lukas Foss interview by Richard Dufallo in Trackings: Composers Speak with Richard Dufallo. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Category:1922 births
Category:2009 deaths
Category:20th-century American classical composers
Category:20th-century German composers
Category:20th-century German male composers
Category:20th-century American conductors
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:21st-century American classical composers
Category:21st-century German composers
Category:21st-century German male composers
Category:21st-century American male musicians
Category:American male classical composers
Category:American male conductors
Category:German ballet composers
Category:American contemporary classical music performers
Category:German classical composers
Category:German male classical composers
Category:German conductors
Category:German male conductors
Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Category:Jewish American classical composers
Category:Music & Arts artists
Category:Composers from Berlin
Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni
Category:Tanglewood Music Center faculty
Category:University at Buffalo alumni
Category:Yale University alumni
Category:Pupils of Fritz Reiner
Category:Pupils of Paul Hindemith
Category:Pupils of Rosario Scalero
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:Hindemith scholars
Category:American ballet composers
Category:Music directors of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra