Lukas Foss | |
|---|---|
 Foss in 1960 | |
| Born | Lukas Fuchs August 15, 1922 |
| Died | February 1, 2009(2009-02-01) (aged 86) New York City, U.S. |
| 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.
Born Lukas Fuchs inBerlin,Germany in 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. In 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power, the Jewish family moved from Germany to Paris, where Lukas studied piano withLazare Lévy, composition withNoël Gallon,orchestration withFelix 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 Music inPhiladelphia, 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 Koussevitzky during the summers from 1939 to 1943 at theBerkshire Music Center (now known as the Tanglewood Music Center) and, as a special student, composition withPaul Hindemith atYale University from 1939 to 1940.[2] He became an American citizen in 1942.[3]
Foss was appointed professor of music atUCLA in 1953, replacingArnold Schoenberg. While there he founded theImprovisation Chamber Ensemble, which made its Boston debut in 1962 for thePeabody Mason Concert series.[4] He founded theCenter of the Creative and Performing Arts in 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), while also music director of theJerusalem Symphony Orchestra from 1972 to 1976. From 1981 to 1986, he was conductor of theMilwaukee Symphony Orchestra.[2] He was a professor of music, theory, and composition atBoston University beginning in 1991. In 1994, he conducted a concert in theNaumburg Orchestral Concerts, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series.[5] His students includeLauren Bernofsky,Faye-Ellen Silverman,Ivana Themmen,Claire Polin andRocco 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.[6][failed verification] In 2000 he was awarded a Gold Medal by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 1951 Foss marriedCornelia Brendel, an artist and painter who was born in Berlin in 1931, the daughter of art historianOtto Brendel andMaria Weigert Brendel.[7] 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 Gould and moved with the two children to Toronto, an arrangement that she later called, "a perfect triangle".[8]
Foss, who hadParkinson's disease in his final years, died at his home inManhattan on February 1, 2009, aged 86, of a heart attack.[3]
