Performers:
Fox's early training in Detroit included lessons in saxophone with Laurence Teal and in theory and arranging with Ray McConnell. He first studied composition with Ruth Shaw Wylie at Wayne State University and, following his graduation from that institution, with Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan. He studied later with Bernhard Heiden at the Indiana University School of Music, where he earned his master's and doctoral degrees. Following a 15-year period in which he held various faculty and foundation posts, he joined the music faculty of Indiana University where he has taught since 1974. He was also founding and first director of the New Music Ensemble at Indiana University.
Among Dr. Fox's compositions are a ballet, several orchestral and concerted works, a good deal of chamber music for various instrumental combinations, and several choral works. He has received a number of awards for his music and three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. His works have been performed in Europe, Latin America, and Japan, as well as throughout the United States, and several have been recorded: Night Ceremonies by the Louisville Orchestra; The Descent by the Gregg Smith Singers; Annexus on Roncorp recordings; and Shaking the Pumpkin (Soundpix SL-5042).
Like many young American composers in the Fifties and Sixties, Fox had some experience as a jazz performer and arranger before he took up composing, and he experimented with serial writing. He found serialism to be essentially at odds with his creative outlook, but his jazz background was to find its echo in several of his most characteristic works.
Recorded by students of the IU Audio Department: Jake Belser, Brent Courtney, Esther Luna, Jeff Mee, and Kevin Shima.
Recorded in the IU Musical Arts Center, Bloomington, Indiana, 1994–1997.
Producers: David Pickett, David Dzubay
Catalog Number: IUSM-09
Tracks
- Impressions
- Dawnen Grey
- Fantasy for Viola and Piano
- Devil's Tramping Ground
