Music Education Department

Leon Fosha

Welcome to The Music Education Department at IU Please see the department faculty Biographies.

Professor Emeritus of Music Education

Leon Fosha (1921 - 2008)

Professor Fosha served the Jacobs School of Music as director of Undergraduate Studies in Music Education over an 18-year period. He completed his bachelor's degree at Illinois State University, master's degree at Ohio University, and Ph.D. at the State University of Iowa.

As a trumpet player, jazz pianist, and arranger, he served four years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, including a two-year tour of duty in the Pacific Theatre as a member of a band aboard the battleship Massachusetts. After the war, he began his teaching career in Racine, Wis., where he taught vocal and instrumental music in junior, and then senior high school. Prior to coming to Indiana, he served the school district as music consultant and played an active role in the musical life of the community, serving as musical director of the Racine Symphony, the Racine Chorale, the Western Male Chorus, the Theatre Guild, and several church choir programs. From Racine, he moved to the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, where he served the music department as director of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies. He joined the faculty at Indiana University in 1969 and retired in 1987.  Professor Fosha placed and supervised well over 1,000 student teachers during his tenure at Wisconsin and Indiana.

Professor Fosha enjoyed an active career as a composer/arranger, scoring for numerous musical settings and organizations, including the marching bands at the State University of Iowa and later, Indiana University, where he contributed scores for a Rose Bowl show. He has published two volumes of piano accompaniments and has authored an instrumentation and arranging textbook. These books are currently in use for the Arranging Class at the Jacobs School.

Fosha is survived by his second wife, Norma Fosha, of Sun City, AZ; son and daughter-in-law, Joel Frederick and Sherilyn Marie Fosha, of Bloomington; daughter and son-in-law, Nancy Noel and Ralph Daniel Irvin, of Portland, OR; and two granddaughters, Veronica Marie Fosha and Victoria Jean Fosha.