Peter Paul Fuchs

Peter Paul Fuchs (October 30, 1916 – March 26, 2007) was an Austrian-born conductor and composer, best known for his conducting appointments with American orchestras and for his teaching. He was also a prolific composer although little of his music survives in performance. His writings include two influential music text books. Early life Fuchs was born on October 30, 1916, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, son of Dr. Adolf Fuchs, a well known heart specialist, and Marianne Ruzicka, a piano teacher. His grandfather was Alois Ruzicka, a prominent Viennese lawyer, originally from the same hometown as Gustav Mahler, and who had encouraged Mahler’s father to further young Gustav’s musical studies. After his academic studies in the “gymnasium”, he graduated in 1935 from the Vienna Academy of Music where his mentors were Felix Weingartner and Joseph Krips in conducting, and Karl Weigl in composition. In 1936 Fuchs was engaged as conductor and repetiteur for the German Theater in Brno, Czechoslovakia. The volatile politics of the period and the imminent Nazi invasion meant he was forced to leave Brno. Without a valid passport or job he spent two years living in exile in Switzerland and Italy unt