While Lillian Fuchs was also a gifted teacher and composer, she is best remembered for her soulful viola performances, which inspired composers to create pieces specifically for her. Fuchs originally trained as a pianist before studying violin and composition at what would become Juilliard. After graduating, she switched to viola and played with the Perole Quartet until the mid 1940s, when she began touring Europe and the US, both solo and performing with her brothers, Harry, a cellist, and Joseph, a violinist. Their performances inspired a number of composers to create pieces either for the siblings or specifically for Lillian Fuchs. Fuchs herself composed a variety of pieces for viola, violin, and piano. She also began teaching at summer festivals in Aspen, Colorado, and Blue Hill, Maine, starting in the 1950s. She began teaching at the Manhattan School of Music in 1962, at Juilliard in 1971, and at Mannes College of Music in the 1980s. Later in life, she returned to her practice of performing with family when she created the Lillian Fuchs Trio with her twin daughters, Carol Stein Amado (a violinist) and Barbara Stein Mallow (a cellist).