Page 4 - GC Nov-Dec 2022

Lukas Foss remembered

from page 1 Julius Goldstein [Herford] in Berlin
at the age of six. His parents were
his life because he felt free to really Hilde (Schindler) and the philoso-
be creative and do things he pher and scholar Martin Foss. He
wouldn’t be able to do anywhere moved with his family to Paris in
else. We have to celebrate the per- 1933, where he studied piano with
son he was; a maverick and a force Lazare Lévy, composition with
of nature who believed so strongly Noël Gallon, orchestration with Fe-
in new music and young composers lix Wolfes, and flute with Marcel
that he actually made Buffalo the Moyse.
epicenter of the new music world,” In 1937 he moved with his par-
Falletta said. ents and brother to the United
Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, States, where his father (on advice
Germany in 1922, Foss was soon from the Quakers who had taken the was born in Berlin in 1931, the
recognized as a child prodigy. He family in upon arrival in Philadel- daughter of art historian Otto Bren-
began piano and theory lessons with phia) changed the family name to del and Maria Weigert Brendel. The
Foss. He studied at the Curtis Insti- couple had two children, Christo-
tute of Music in Philadelphia, with pher Brendel Foss, who became a
Isabelle Vengerova (piano), Rosario documentary filmmaker and corpo-
Scalero (composition) and Fritz rate consultant on social and envi-
Reiner (conducting). At Curtis, Foss ronmental engagement /
began a lifelong friendship with sustainability communications, and
classmate Leonard Bernstein, who Eliza Foss Topol, an actress.
later described Foss as an "authentic
genius."
In 1951 Foss married Cornelia
Brendel, an artist and painter who