Since his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1957, harpsichordist Albert Fuller came to occupy a prominent position in American musical life, performing solo recitals and chamber concerts throughout the United States and Europe. In addition to his reputation as improviser of the basso continuo, he made important contributions to the interpretation of the solo harpsichord literature with his recordings of Rameau, Scarlatti, Bach, Le Roux and the Couperins. He has also conducted modern premiere productions of Rameau’s operas Dardanus in New York and Les Indes Galantes in Chicago.
In 1972, Mr. Fuller founded the Aston Magna Festival, which takes place each summer in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He served as Artistic Director and President until 1983. Their annual concerts traversed the entire body of chamber and orchestral literature from Monteverdi to Beethoven and became the chief catalyst of the original instrument movement in this country. Significant among these performances was the first public performance and recording in the United States of Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos played on original instruments. This was taken up as the inaugural project of the Smithsonian Institution’s recording program and later became a best-selling record, which to date has sold almost 100,000 copies.
In 1978 Mr. Fuller founded the Aston Magna Academies with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as a gathering place for the exchange of ideas by scholars, aestheticians, and humanists, as well as musicians.
Mr. Fuller was schooled as a chorister and organist at the Washington Cathedral and later as a classical scholar at Georgetown University. He held degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Yale University and has been given the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. Mr. Fuller joined the faculty of The Juilliard Scholl in 1964 and was an Associate Professor of Music at the Yale School of Music. He influenced several generations of musicians by his inspired teaching and scholarship.
He was a member of the Visiting Committee to the Music Department of Harvard University (1977-83) and a member of the Yale University Council Committee on Music. As President and Artistic Director of the Helicon Foundation (1985-2006), he stimulated public interest in music and art and their relationship to the Western concept of the value of the individual.