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Charles Fox. THAT Charles Fox.

Charles Fox

He was born in New York City in 1940 and is a celebrated American composer, author of film and theatre scores that are loved and recognized not only in the United States. He began as a pianist, composer and arranger for Ray Baretto, Joe Quijano and Tito Puente. A multiple Academy Award nominee, the nominations including Ready to Take a Chance Again from Foul Play (1978) and Richard’s Window from The Other Side of the Mountain (1975), Fox also won two Emmys and one Grammy for the Love American Style score, as well as BMI’s prestigious Richard Kirk Award for outstanding life achievement in music. Many Europeans not familiar with American television will be little impressed to find out that Fox wrote – among other classics – the immortal Monday Night Football theme. They will be impressed, however, to find out that Killing me Softly with His Song was written by him and Norman Gimble in 1971. It is one of the most aired/performed tracks from the BMI’s repertoire, doubly immortal thanks to the voices of Roberta Flack and Lauryn Hill, the latter then with The Fugees.

Fox wrote music to over 100 films and has an impressive theatre- and ballet output as well. He worked with Goldie Hawn, Fred Astaire, Johnny Cash, Johnny Mathis, Lauryn Hill and Ice T. He was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004. In July 2009 he conducted the Chorus of Teatr Wielki in Warsaw during the premiere of his oratorio Lament and Prayer composed to the words of Pope John Paul II. In short, Charles Fox is a true one-man band. Not only did he write the 10-minute Chopin impression specially for this year’s festival – he also ran a terrific two-hour masterclass for composers at the Music Academy in Gdańsk on the first day of Solidarity of Arts 2010.

Photo: Annamaria DiSanto