Kenneth Fuchs

Chandos Records is releasing digital singles of their second volume of orchestral music by Kenneth Fuchs. The entire album was released globally on all platforms on June 14. The album, Light Year, includes world-premiere 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

Point of Tranquility: Idyll for Winds, Brass, Strings, and Percussion after a Painting by Morris Louis 

Listen to Point of Tranquility: III. Maestoso

The scope and flair of the playing in this second volume of Fuchs’s orchestral works, and the range of music presented, make it essential listening.” 

— Adrian Edwards, Gramophone, July 2024

The album is available for order here.

The second volume in this Chandos series devoted to the orchestral music of the contemporary American composer Kenneth Fuchs (b.1956) proves to be as enjoyable as the first, and those attuned to Fuchs’ instantly accessible body of work will be entranced once more by the variety on offer here.

— Graham Williams, HRAudio.net

Chandos Records has released the first of two volumes devoted to the orchestral music of Kenneth Fuchs. The first, Cloud Slant, includes world-premiere 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 for Orchestra), and Solitary the Thrush (Concerto Flute and Orchestra) with soloist Adam Walker. Following its release, the album immediately hit the Top Ten of several UK and US classical charts and received a coveted “Critics’ Choice” for the December 2023 issue of Gramophone.

Reviewer Adrian Edwards wrote:

“If you haven’t before come across the name of Kenneth Fuchs, let me recommend him to you with all possible urgency, for here is a composer of contemporary music who brings to his compositions a winning combination of melody, dazzling orchestration, design and balance. Moreover, he could not receive greater advocacy than that accorded him by the Sinfonia of London and their conductor John Wilson. The recording by Chandos is something to live for!”

Chandos Records will release Light Year, Vol. 2 of the series, in June 2024. 

Fuchs states, “I am thrilled to be the first living American composer whose music John Wilson has recorded with the Sinfonia of London. The conductor, orchestra, and soloist are extraordinary performers, and the recorded sound is superb.” The album was recorded in Surround Sound, and is available as a Hybrid SACD and in Spatial Audio. See also Gramophone magazine’s Classical Music Podcast, in which Kenneth Fuchs talks with Editor James Jolly about recording with the Sinfonia of London.

For more information, visit the album website at: https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%205296

Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Announces Kenneth Fuchs As Recipient of 3^rd Annual Composer Award

Rockland, ME – The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation is pleased to announce Kenneth Fuchs is the recipient of its 3^rd annual $20,000 Composer Award.  With the Award, Fuchs will create a new work to be performed in 2023 by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. Fuchs, a Grammy Award-winning composer and professor of composition at the University of Connecticut, was selected through a juried national competition and chosen from over 225 applicants.

Fuchs says, “The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation’s support for my music touches me deeply. I admire the Foundation’s mission of promoting community engagement and inclusivity through musical expression and look forward to creating a meaningful work that exemplifies these values in collaboration with my colleagues of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.”

The jury was comprised of composers Augusta Read Thomas and Adam Schoenberg, and conductor Mei-Ann Chen. Reflecting on the jury’s decision, Thomas said, “Kenneth Fuchs has an exceptional ear for pitch, harmony, rhythm, and timbre which, allied to his vivid and flexible imagination, results in lyrical, elegant, compelling, and personal compositions.” Schoenberg echoed Thomas’s thoughts: “Kenneth is a gifted composer who writes deeply personal and expressive works. His level of craftsmanship, meticulously detailed scores, and gorgeous orchestrations made his music stand out.” Looking ahead to the premiere, Chen noted, “Captivating and engaging, Mr. Fuchs’ music will be an exciting culmination of the wonderful Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer Award and a highly anticipated spotlight in the Bangor Symphony’s next season!”

The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer Award has seen nearly 900 submissions over the course of its first three application cycles. In October, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra premiered inaugural award recipient Reinaldo Moya’s Concerto for Piano, Strings, and Percussion with Joyce Yang as soloist. The Orchestra is slated to premiere Jessica Meyer’s The Air of New Places on March 6^th, 2022; Meyer was the 2^nd annual award recipient.

Composer Augusta Read Thomas went on to say, “The Ellis Beauregard Foundation Composer Award in partnership with the Bangor Symphony and Lucas Richman offers a tour-de-force musical opportunity that allows a fortunate composer and performing artists to do the important work of collaborating together to further music’s flexible, diverse capacity and innate power.”

The Foundation intends to announce details of the 2022 application cycle in May.

About Kenneth Fuchs

Kenneth Fuchs has recorded for Naxos five albums with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta; the latest won the 2018 GRAMMY® Award for “Best Classical Compendium.” He has composed music for orchestra, band, voice, chorus, soloists, and various chamber ensembles. With Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson, Fuchs created three chamber musicals. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum presented Fuchs’s operatic monodrama Falling Man (text by Don DeLillo, adapted by J. D. McClatchy) in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of 9/11. His music has achieved significant global recognition through performances, media exposure, and digital streaming and downloading.

In August 2020, Naxos released Point of Tranquility (Seven Works for Symphonic Winds), recorded by the United States Coast Guard Band. Naxos also published an album of chamber music including Falling Canons, Falling Trio and String Quartet No. 5 “American.” Albany Records published String Quartets 2, 3, 4 in definitive performances by the American String Quartet.

Fuchs serves as Professor of Music Composition at the University of Connecticut. He is a graduate of the University of Miami and received master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from The Juilliard School. His composition teachers include Milton Babbitt, David Diamond, and Vincent Persichetti. His music is published by Bill Holab Music, Hal Leonard LLC, Edward B. Marks Music Company, and Theodore Presser Company, and it has been recorded by Albany and Naxos Records.

About the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation

The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation provides resources for artists, engages with community and promotes the legacy of its founding artists, Joan Beauregard and John David Ellis. The vision of the Foundation is to encourage, expand and sustain the courageous and imaginative dialogue that is fundamental to the arts. The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation celebrates the value of art to transcend cultures and engage with diverse communities. Through its programs, the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation supports the exploration of the common ground that art occupies, the way it engages people, and its ability to reveal our shared human experience.

About the Bangor Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1896, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s mission is to provide powerful, enriching and diverse musical experiences through live concert performances and education programs of the highest quality. Led by Grammy Award-winning Music Director and Conductor Lucas Richman, the BSO today performs a robust mainstage season and offers a variety of educational and community-focused programs, including the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestras and a Music & Wellness Program. The BSO is a founding member of the Bangor Arts Exchange in downtown Bangor. Current concert and streaming details can be found at bangorsymphony.org.