Fussell attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he worked with Thomas Canning and Bernard Rogers, and studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, working with Boris Blacher. While in Germany, he also attended the Bayreuth Masterclasses of Frideland Wagner. He later was assistant to and close friend of composer Virgil Thomson. He has received a citation and award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, grants from the Ford and Copland Foundations, and a Fulbright Fellowship.

Major works include six symphonies and three operas. Symphonies No. 3 and 6 are choral symphonies – Symphony No. 3, Landscapes, based on the work of four American poets, and Symphony No. 6, High Bridge, setting five poems from Hart Crane’s late 1920s epic, The Bridge. Of his three operas, two are chamber operas: Cymbeline (After Shakespeare), and The Astronomer’s Tale, with libretto by Jack Larson. Julian, based on a short story by Flaubert, is a full evening’s liturgical drama.

Recent recordings include Specimen Days and Being Music, two commissions for the 1992 Walt Whitman Centennial, available on Koch records. Symphony No. 5, The Astronaut’s Tale, and Right River (Concerto for Cello solo and String Orchestra) are available on Albany records. High Bridge, Prelude for Orchestra, and Wilde, Symphony No. 4 for Baritone and Orchestra, was released by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. It was nominated for a Grammy^® Award in 2009. Wilde was also a Pulitzer runner-up in 1993.