Joseph Philip Fuchs (April 26, 1899 or 1900 – March 14, 1997) was one of the most important American

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ists and teachers of the 20th century, and the brother of Lillian Fuchs. Born in New York, he graduated in 1918 from the Institute of Musical Art in New York where he studied with Franz Kneisel. In 1926 he was appointed concertmaster of the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Se ...

, but resigned in 1940 to pursue a solo career. After a successful New York début in 1943, he became co-founder of the Musicians’ Guild, a chamber music organization which he directed there until 1956. He toured extensively in Europe, appearing at the 1953 and 1954 Prades festivals, and in South America, the USSR, Israel and Japan; he also played as a soloist with every important orchestra in the USA. Joseph Fuchs performed a series of recitals with pianist Artur Balsam in 1956 for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston.''Boston Globe'', 24-Feb-1956, John Wm. Riley, "Fuchs and Balsam in Beethoven sonatas" A Ford Foundation grant in 1960 enabled him to commission

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Ha ...

’s Second Violin Concerto, the première of which he gave that year in Pittsburgh. Fuchs also gave the first performances of concertos by Lopatnikoff (1944–5), Ben Weber (1954) and Mario Peragallo (1955); of Martinů’s Madrigaly for violin and

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, dedicated to Fuchs and his sister Lillian (1947); of the revised version of

Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

’s Violin Sonata, with Artur Balsam (1969); and of the posthumous American première of Martinů’s Sonata for two violins and piano (1974). Fuchs became a violin professor at the Juilliard School of Music in 1946, and in 1971 he received the Artist Teacher’s Award from the American String Teachers’ Association. Fuchs died in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in 1997. He played the “ Cádiz Stradivarius” violin of 1722. His style of playing was vigorous and large-scaled, with a masterful technique and a rich, warm tone. A clear example of all this may be heard in his recording of Stravinsky's Duo Concertant (Decca, with Leo Smit).

References

Sources

*J. Creighton: Discopaedia of the Violin, 1889–1971 (Toronto, 1974), 226ff *D. Rooney and R.D. Lawrence: ‘Joseph Fuchs’, The Strad, xcix (1988), 896–904 *M. Campbell: Obituary, The Independent (18 March 1997)

External links

Joseph Fuchs, 97, a Violinist and Teacher
Obituary in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, March 17, 1997 *, WNCN-FM, 19-Feb-1982 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Joseph American classical violinists Male classical violinists American male violinists Jewish American classical musicians Year of birth uncertain 1997 deaths Juilliard School faculty 20th-century classical violinists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American violinists