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<\/a>Fifteen minutes from UConn\u2019s Avery Point campus, where the Thames River meets the Long Island Sound captivated Fuchs. He shares that it is one of the most dramatic spots of earth meeting water that he has ever seen\u2014that point of tranquility, the extraordinary location where they live and practice, seemed so perfect for the Coast Guard Band.<\/p>\nThe album includes seven works by Fuchs titled Discover the Wild, Point of Tranquility, From the Field to the Sky, Rush, United Artists, Christina\u2019s World and Forever Free.<\/p>\n
Point of Tranquility, the name of the album, is also a painting by Morris Louis that inspired Fuchs in his work. The broad strokes of color across the canvas inspired Fuchs to create a piece that suggests the same \u201cwashes of color\u201d that bring you to a point of tranquility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really responded to that. It was the gesture, the shape that I discovered that I loved so much, with the abstract expressionists, with this sense of freedom, of coloristic freedom, of coloristic shape all over canvas, and I thought \u2018What a great idea for a musical composition,\u2019\u201d Fuchs says.<\/p>\n
Fuchs credits his high school band director Bentley Shellahamer for setting him on the path to become an award-winning composer in an interview he did for UConn Magazine<\/a>. Fuchs came to UConn in 2005 to head the music department and now teaches courses that involve writing, analysis and discussion of music composition. He tells his students to write as much as possible then find the right musicians and have them rehearse their music immediately to make sure they\u2019ve made the right choices, just as his teacher did for him.<\/p>\n Reed has published over 200 works and Persichetti is known for training many noted composers in composition at the Juilliard School where Fuchs completed his Doctor of Musical arts degree in composition. Fuchs has composed music for orchestra, band, chorus, and various chamber ensembles. His music has been performed in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Fuchs has been nominated for four Grammys and won his first in 2019<\/a> in the Best Classical Compendium category for his album \u201cPiano Concerto \u2018Spiritualist\u2019\/Poems of Life\/Glacier\/Rush.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a>Fuchs studied with American Composer Alfred Reed as an undergraduate student at the University of Miami and Vincent Persichetti as a graduate student at Juilliard. He contributes his compositional perspective to the work he did with both of those artists. They challenged him to think about creating a central thread through the entire piece \u201cwith a group of people who have to continually breathe in their instruments, but to also make that an organic part of the musical composition,\u201d Fuchs mentioned in an interview for Naxos.<\/p>\n