He worked for a year with Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan, but took a leave from his studies to tour as a jazz saxophonist (tenor and baritone), a career he gave up in 1956–57 to return to serious composing.
[1] After serving in various faculty and foundation posts in the United States, Fox returned to the Indiana University School of Music in 1974 as professor of composition.
[1] Notable students of Fox include: James Aikman, Margaret Brouwer, David Dzubay, Keith Fitch, Jeffrey Hass,[1] Jeeyoung Kim, Robert Paterson, Mark Phillips, and Stephen Suber.
With more than 55 published compositions in various media, Fox's catalog ranges from solo instrumental and choral pieces to large-scale works for orchestra; a good number of them are commercially recorded.
His music grows principally out of this background, experience, and interest in jazz, in addition to serial techniques, and some informal systematic formations which tend to possess qualities of improvisation.