Lukas Foss
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Lukas Foss (born Lukas Fuchs, August 15, 1922 in Berlin, Germany) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and professor. He studied with Julius Goldstein. He moved to Paris in 1933 where he studied piano with Lazare Lévy, composition with Noël Gallon, orchestration with Felix Wolfes, and flute with Louis Moyse. In 1937 he moved to America and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with Sergei 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.
Foss was appointed professor of music at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1953, replacing Arnold Schoenberg. While there he founded the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble. He founded the Center for Creative and Performing Arts in 1963 while at the University at Buffalo. He has been Professor of Music, Theory, and Composition at Boston University since 1991. His notable students include Claire Polin.
He is grouped in the "Boston school" along with Arthur Berger, Irving Fine, Alexie Haieff, Harold Shapero, and Claudio Spies.
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[edit] Works
His early works are neoclassical in style, he began using controlled improvisation and chance procedures with the twelve tone technique and serialism, while his later works are polystylistic.
| title | movements | date | notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Piano Concerto Number 1 |
|
1943 | Originally a clarinet concerto, rewritten for piano and orchestra. |
| 2. | Piano Concerto Number 2 |
|
1949-1951, revised 1952 | Modeled after Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. |
| 3. | Time Cycle | 1960 | ||
| 4. | Echoi | 1963 | ||
| 5. | Baroque Variations |
|
1967 | |
| 6. | Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird | 1978 | ||
| 7. | Elegy for Anne Frank | 1989 | Composed to commemorate 60th birthday anniversary of Anne Frank. Includes optional narration. | |
| 8. | Renaissance Concerto | 1990 |
[edit] Personal
- Wife: Cornelia Brendel Foss, artist/painter.
- Son: Christopher Brendel Foss, advertising executive.
- Daughter: Eliza Foss Turino, actress.
[edit] External links
- All Music Guide: Lukas Foss
- Humanities Web: Lukas Foss Index
- CDeMusic: Lukas Foss
- New Albion Artists: Lukas Foss
- Lukas Foss Lecture A Twentieth-Century Composer's Confessions about the Creative Process
