Lukas Foss, the composer, conductor and pianist, has died. He was 86. Foss was born in Berlin, educated at Curtis, and pursued an energetic career that expressed itself in a variety of music styles . Read the New York Times obit here.
Foss not only attended Curtis. He visited the school to lead the orchestra while Gary Graffman was director. He received an honorary degree from Curtis in 1988.
Here is what Graffman had to say about Foss this afternoon.
"He was one of those triple threats – when he was at Curtis he was studying piano and composition and conducting. I am told that when he auditioned he also wanted to audition as a flutist, but they thought enough was enough.
"He was an incredible sight-reader. I had the feeling that if you would turn a Strauss score upside down he would read it, which of course was the appeal for Koussevitzky, who relied on Lukas to read contemporary scores people sent to him."
About Foss' diversity as a composer, Graffman said:
"He was not doing it in my opinion because it was the style. He really wanted to experiment and see what he could do, what all of it could be."
(Foss is pictured with Leonard Bernstein at the keyboard in an AP photo.)
Comments (1)
I was a fan of Mr. Foss's compositions, studying many of them at school. He guest-conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra many years ago in one of the Mann Center summer concerts. We walked to the front of the stage at the end of the concert and asked the stage manager if he was seeing guests. He walked away, came back a few minutes later and took us back to the green room where Mr. Foss graciously spent 15 minutes talking to us about the art of conducting and composing. A terrific person....
Posted by CSD | February 2, 2009 9:48 AM
Posted on February 2, 2009 09:48