Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and
conductor.
Career
Born Lukas Fuchs in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with Julius Goldstein
erfordin Berlin at the age of six. His parents were Hilde (Schindler) and the philosopher and scholar
Martin Foss
Martin Foss (1889–1968) was a German-born American philosopher, professor, and scholar.
Life and career
Martin Foss was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1889 and studied philosophy and law at German and French universities. He married Hilde Schindl ...
. He moved with his family to Paris in 1933, where he studied piano with
Lazare Lévy
Lazare Lévy
Lazare Lévy, also hyphenated as Lazare-Lévy, (18 January 188220 September 1964) was an influential French pianist, organist, composer and pedagogue. As a virtuoso pianist he toured throughout Europe, in North Africa, Israel, the Sov ...
, composition with
Noël Gallon
Noël Jean-Charles André Gallon (11 September 1891 – 26 December 1966) was a French composer and music educator. His compositional output includes several choral works and vocal art songs, 10 preludes, a ''Toccata'' for piano, a ''Sonata ...
,
orchestration with
Felix Wolfes
Felix Wolfes (September 2, 1892 in Hannover – March 28, 1971 in Boston) was an American educator, Conducting, conductor and composer.''Baker's Biographical Dictionary'', eighth edition, p. 2068
Biography
Felix was born to Jewish parents in Hanno ...
, and flute with
Marcel Moyse
Marcel Moyse (pron. ''moh-EEZ''; May 17, 1889, in St. Amour, France – November 1, 1984, in Brattleboro, Vermont, United States) was a French flautist. Moyse studied at the Paris Conservatory and was a student of Philippe Gaubert, Adolphe Hen ...
. 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 the
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship.
Hi ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, with
Isabelle Vengerova
Isabelle Vengerova ( be, Ізабэла Венгерава; 7 February 1956) was a Russian, later American, pianist and music teacher.
She was born Izabella Afanasyevna Vengerova (Изабелла Афанасьевна Венгерова) in M ...
(piano),
Rosario Scalero
Natale Rosario Scalero (24 December 1870 in Moncalieri - 25 December 1954 in Montestrutto) was an Italian violinist, music teacher and composer.
Life and career
By the age of six, Scalero was under the tutelage of Pietro Bertazzi, a violinis ...
(composition) and
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin "Fritz" Reiner (December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to ...
(conducting).
At Curtis, Foss began a lifelong friendship with classmate
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
, 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
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...
''.
Foss also studied with
Serge 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
Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...
at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
from 1939 to 1940.
He became an American citizen in 1942.
Foss was appointed professor of music at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
in 1953, replacing
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
. While there he founded the
Improvisation Chamber Ensemble, which made its Boston debut in 1962 for the
Peabody Mason Concert
Benefactor
The name Peabody Mason comes from Miss Fanny Peabody Mason, who until her death in 1948 was an active patron of music both in the United States and abroad. Her musical interests were piano, singing and chamber music.
Concert series ...
series. He founded the
Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in 1963 while at the
State University of New York at Buffalo
The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...
.
Over six separate years from 1961 to 1987, Foss was the music director of the
Ojai Music Festival
The Ojai Music Festival is an annual classical music festival in the United States. Held in Ojai, California (75 miles northwest of Los Angeles), for four days every June, the festival presents music, symposia, and educational programs emphasizi ...
. 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
There have been several organisations referred to as the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The most recent one was the now-defunct Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, an American orchestra based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in existence fr ...
(formerly Brooklyn Philharmonia). From 1981 to 1986, he was conductor of the
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The orchestra performs primarily at the Bradley Symphony Center in Allen-Bradley Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for Florentine ...
.
He was a professor of music, theory, and composition at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
beginning in 1991. His notable students include
Faye-Ellen Silverman
Faye-Ellen Silverman (born October 2, 1947) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She is also an author and an educator.
Life and education
Born in New York, New York, Silverman began studying music at the Dalcroze School of ...
,
Claire Polin
Claire Polin (January 1, 1926 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – December 6, 1995 in Merion, Pennsylvania) was an American composer of contemporary classical music, musicologist, and flutist.
Education
She obtained degrees in music (including a do ...
and
Rocco Di Pietro.
Foss is grouped in the "
Boston school" along with
Arthur Berger,
Irving Fine
Irving Gifford Fine (December 3, 1914 – August 23, 1962) was an American composer. Fine's work assimilated neoclassical, romantic, and serial elements. Composer Virgil Thomson described Fine's "unusual melodic grace" while Aaron Copland noted ...
,
Alexei Haieff
Alexei Vasilievich Haieff (August 25, 1914 – March 1, 1994) was an American composer of orchestral and choral works. He is known for following Stravinsky's neoclassicism, observing an austere economy of means, and achieving modernistic effect ...
,
Harold Shapero
Harold Samuel Shapero (April 29, 1920 – May 17, 2013) was an American composer.
Early years
Shapero was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1920. He and his family later moved to nearby Newton. He learned to play the piano as a chi ...
, and
Claudio Spies
Carlos Claudio Spies (March 26, 1925 – April 2, 2020) was a Chilean-American composer.
Biography
Early life
Born in Santiago, Chile, of German Jewish parents, Spies completed primary and secondary education in Santiago in 1941, when he p ...
.
He was a National Patron of
Delta Omicron
Delta Omicron () is a co-ed international professional music honors fraternity whose mission is to promote and support excellence in music and musicianship.
History
Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity was founded on September 6, 1909 at ...
, 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
Otto Johannes Brendel (October 10, 1901 in Erlangen, Germany – October 8, 1973 in New York City) was a German art historian and scholar of Etruscan art and archaeology.
Biography
In 1928, he received his Ph.D. from the Ruprecht Karl University ...
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
Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...
and moved with the two children to Toronto, an arrangement that she later called, "a perfect triangle".
Foss, who had
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
in his final years, died at his home 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 ...
on February 1, 2009, aged 86, of a heart attack.
References
External links
Lukas Foss' page at Carl Fischer*
Allmusic: Lukas FossHumanities Web: Lukas Foss Index
New Albion Artists: Lukas Foss*
Art of the States: Lukas FossLucas Foss Collectionat th
Library of Congress
Interviews
Lukas Foss interviewby
Gabrielle Zuckerman, from ''American Mavericks'' site
Lukas Foss interviewby
Terry Gross
Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is an American journalist who is the host and co-executive producer of '' Fresh Air'', an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining N ...
, from ''
Fresh Air
''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to ...
'' program, originally broadcast October 7, 1987
Interview with Lukas Fossby Bruce Duffie, February 2, 1987
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foss, Lukas
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
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
Jewish American classical musicians
Music & Arts artists
Musicians 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