Love Quote by Lukas Foss

Foss gives career advice that sounds almost suspiciously anti-career: stop hunting for the next “project” like it’s a grant deliverable and go back to obsession. Coming from a composer who moved easily between concert hall modernism, conducting, and pedagogy, the line reads as a quiet rebuke to the anxious professionalization of young artists. Students want a prompt, a niche, a brand. Foss points them toward a practice instead: immersion, the slow saturation that rewires taste into instinct.

The intent is practical but the subtext is philosophical. “The music you love” isn’t just a comfort blanket; it’s a diagnostic tool. Love reveals what your ear can’t ignore, what tensions you’re willing to live inside, what risks feel necessary rather than decorative. Foss is also dodging the false glamour of originality. He implies that originality doesn’t arrive as a lightning bolt or a contrarian pose; it’s the byproduct of listening deeply enough that your desires become legible. The next project isn’t invented so much as uncovered.

Context matters: Foss came of age amid mid-century debates about serialism, accessibility, and the composer’s social role. In that climate, “immerse” is a sly alternative to ideology. He’s not telling students to join a camp; he’s telling them to build a private compass sturdy enough to withstand fashions. The line works because it reframes artistic direction as an internal consequence of attention. If you can listen without flinching, your next move stops being a question you ask and becomes an answer your taste insists on.