News
Chandos releases Light Year, recorded by John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London
On June 14, 2024, Chandos released their second volume of orchestral music by Kenneth Fuchs. The album, Light Year (CHAN 5326), features saxophone superstar Timothy McAllister and the remarkable bass trombonist James Buckle and includes world-première recordings of four new works:
- Light Year: Suite for Orchestra after Six Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler
- Eventide: Concerto for Alto Saxophone, Percussion, Harp, Celesta, and String Orchestra
- Bass Trombone Concerto, and
- Point of Tranquility: Idyll for Winds, Brass, Strings, and Percussion after a Painting by Morris Louis
See Chandos page here » Order from Amazon here »
Sound files available from music subscription sources here »
Chandos releases Cloud Slant recorded by John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London
On July 14, 2023, Chandos Records released the first of two volumes devoted to the orchestral music of Kenneth Fuchs. The first, Cloud Slant, includes world-première recordings of four new works:- “Cloud Slant (Concerto for Orchestra, After Three Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler)”
- “Pacific Visions (for String Orchestra)”
- “Quiet in the Land (Poem forOrchestra)” and
- “Solitary the Thrush (Concerto for C & Alto Flute and Orchestra)” with soloist Adam Walker.
Omicron Delta Kappa selects Kenneth Fuchs for its 2024 award in the arts
On June 12, Omicron Delta Kappa, a national collegiate honor society, accorded Kenneth Fuchs its 2024 Pillar of Leadership Award in Creative and Performing Arts. The society’s leadership awards pay tribute to outstanding leaders in each of the five pillars of ODK: Academics and Research, Athletics, Service to Campus and Community, Communications, and Creative and Performing Arts. The award citation reads, “Your 2024 Pillar of Leadership Award in Creative and Performing Arts is based not only on your work as a prolific composer. You are also being honored for your continued teaching of music and your commitment to integrity, inclusivity, and ethical behavior. You are truly one of O∆K’s heroes.”
Buffalo Symphony Orchestra premières Point of Tranquility
At the request of the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Fuchs reconceived for orchestra the original “Idyll for Winds, Brass, and Percussion After a Painting by Morris Louis.” Conductor JoAnn Falletta led the orchestra in première performances on March 19 and 20, 2023, in Kleinhans Music Hall. Buffalo Rising called this concert possibly the “best of the season,” describing Point of Tranquility as “accessible, sweeping, romantic” and “refreshingly different.” Read the review »
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine records music of Kenneth Fuchs
Centaur Records has released Poems & Rhapsodies, a disc including American Rhapsody (Romance for Violin and Orchestra) by Kenneth Fuchs and recorded by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, with Volodymyr Sirenko, conductor, and Solomiya Ivakhiv, violin. Ms. Ivakhiv is a colleague of Kenneth Fuchs at the University of Connecticut, where she is coordinator of strings and associate professor of violin and viola.Bill Holab Music publishes music of Kenneth Fuchs
Composers Richard Danielpour and Kenneth Fuchs, with their publisher Bill Holab Photo: Graham Hebel
Kenneth Fuchs has joined the elite roster of distinguished contemporary composers published by Bill Holab Music. Fuchs’s debut publications include his Bass Trombone Concerto (in versions for orchestra, band, and piano reduction) and Point of Tranquility (Idyll for Winds, Brass and Percussion After a Painting by Morris Louis). JoAnn Falletta will lead the world première of the orchestral setting of Point of Tranquility with the Buffalo Philharmonic, March 19 & 20, 2022; the score will be available following the première. Future works will include Cloud Slant (Concerto for Orchestra After Three Paintings by Helen Frankenthaler) and Solitary the Thrush (Concerto for Flute and Orchestra). Publications are available at Bill Holab Music ».
Fuchs CD receives GRAMMY® Award
The Recording Academy announced at the 61st annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles, February 10, 2019, that Kenneth Fuchs’s album “Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist’; Poems of Life; Glacier; Rush” won the 2018 GRAMMY Award in the category Best Classical Compendium. Fuchs joined conductor JoAnn Falletta on the GRAMMY stage to accept the award, which also went to producer Tim Handley.Naxos releases Point of Tranquility
Commander Adam Williamson with Kenneth Fuchs
The United States Coast Guard Band, stationed at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, has recorded an album of works for symphonic winds by Kenneth Fuchs. The album debuted at #9 on the Amazon Hot 100 Classical Releases and remained in the Top 20 for five consecutive weeks, an unprecedented achievement for an album of wind band music. See a video on the recording » and a video about the title composition », Point of Tranquility. Band Director Commander Adam Williamson conducts. The album (Naxos Wind Band Classics 8.573567) includes
- Discover the Wild
- Point of Tranquility, composed for the Coast Guard Band
- From the Field to the Sky
- Rush (Saxophone Concerto) (live performance, Greg Case, soloist)
- United Artists (for band)
- Christina’s World
- Forever Free (for band)
- The Fuchs Bass Trombone Concerto has been added to some digital downloads of this album.
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Surprised by Beauty: A Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music
Surprised by Beauty by Robert R. Reilly has been released in a revised and expanded edition that devotes a chapter to the music of Kenneth Fuchs. The chapter collects previous writings (some quoted on the Reviews page of this website), including the following appreciations of the music of Kenneth Fuchs:
- “There is little in contemporary music that is as directly expressive as the music of Kenneth Fuchs. It goes right to the heart and stays there. If you think America’s song has already been sung, you need to listen to him.”
- “Fuchs is an exemplar of the recovery of American music.”
- “He is endowed with a major melodic gift.”
- “Like Aaron Copland, Fuchs has a way of capturing the stirrings of the human heart and the yearnings of the soul in highly spirited, soaring music. His works carry within themselves an inimitably American sense of expectancy, of horizons glimpsed and striven for, and, finally, of boldly announced arrivals.”