Frederick Fennell

• Born — 2 July 1914 • Birthplace — Cleveland, Ohio • Died — 7 December 2004 • Place of death — Siesta Key, Florida • Occupation — Conductor • Instrument — Drums • Associated Acts — Eastman Wind Ensemble Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra Dallas Winds

Fennell was born on July 2, 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio. He chose piccolo as his primary instrument at the age of seven, as drummer in the fife-and-drum corps at the family's encampment called Camp Zeke. He owned his first drum set at age ten. In the John Adams High School orchestra, Fennell performed as the kettledrummer and served as the band's drum major. His studies at the Interlochen Arts Camp (then the National Music Camp) included being chosen by famed bandmaster Albert Austin Harding as the bass drummer in the National High School Band in 1931. The band was conducted by John Philip Sousa on July 26, the program including the premiere of Sousa's Northern Pines march. Fennell himself conducted at Interlochen at the age of seventeen. Fennell formed a compatible and fruitful relationship with the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. As a student, he organized the first University of Rochester marching band for the football team and held indoor concerts with the band after the football season for ten years. At Eastman, he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees (in 1937 and 1939). Fennell became the first person to whom the Eastman School of Music awarded a degree in percussion performance. He was also awarded a fellowship that allowed him to study at the Mozarteum Salzburg in 1938, where he took several courses with Herbert Albert and visited several times with the festival's chief conductor, the renowned Wilhelm Furtwängler. Returning, he sailed on the Bremen from Southampton on September 3, 1938. For the purpose of the passenger manifest, he signed his name as Frederick Putnam Fennell (a rare use of his middle name). Fennell also studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in 1942 (with classmates Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss and Walter Hendl). He was appointed Koussevitzky's assistant at the Center in 1948. In 1944, a California newspaper pictured Fennell examining donated musical instruments for WWII servicemen; he was described as the "national USO (United Service Organizations) musical advisor for San Diego County."

While Fennell was recuperating from hepatitis for six weeks in 1952, the idea for a new, smaller type of symphonic band occurred to him: scaling the typical concert band down to the size of the wind section of a symphony orchestra, allowing for greater clarity and better intonation. He recruited nearly 40 players in May 1952 for this, explaining, “I chose the best students in the school, the best solo performers and the best ensemble players." On September 20, 1952, he conducted the first rehearsal for this new Eastman Wind Ensemble, and its first concert at Eastman's Kilbourn Hall on February 8, 1953. Desiring expanded repertoire, he wrote to nearly 400 composers around the world commissioning appropriate compositions for the new group. The first three composers to respond were Percy Grainger, Vincent Persichetti and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Fennell was associate music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (later renamed the Minnesota Orchestra) from 1962 to 1964. In September 1965 he became conductor-in-residence at the University of Miami, where he conducted its symphony orchestra and also founded a wind ensemble. He also served as the resident conductor of the Miami Philharmonic from 1974 to 1975, and as principal guest conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy and Dallas Wind Symphony. At the invitation of its players, he was appointed the initial conductor of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra in 1984. On the podium, he evinced a courtly yet commanding manner despite his diminutive (5'1") stature. He was known to take charge of a room with words alone, and his conducting was extremely animated. His conducting workshops were famous for including calisthenics and baton-technique exercises in swimming pools. He remained highly active in the world of conducting until a few months before his death at his Siesta Key, Florida, home on December 7, 2004, at the age of 90. At the time, he was conductor laureate of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra; principal guest conductor of the Dallas Wind Symphony; and professor emeritus at the University of Miami Frost School of Music.

• Frederick Fennell interview, December 16, 1987

Conducting the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and various other groups, Fennell recorded many of the standards of the wind band repertoire. He became one of America's most-recorded conductors. Starting with "American Concert Band Masterpieces" in 1953, Fennell recorded over 300 compositions on 29 albums for Mercury Records with the Eastman-Rochester "Pops", London "Pops" (actually the London Symphony Orchestra in shirt-sleeves), and free-lance groups of New York musicians. However, best known are the 22 of the 29 Mercury releases made with Fennell's own Eastman Wind Ensemble. One of these albums, Lincolnshire Posy, with music by Percy Grainger (recorded in 1958), was selected by Stereo Review magazine as one of the 50 best recordings of the Centenary of the Phonograph 1877-1977. The two-volume Civil War-Its Music and Its Sounds, recorded in December 1960, was a notable set also made with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, this time performing on period or original instruments. In 1961, Fennell received a citation and a medal from the Congressional Committee for the Centennial of the Civil War for this album. In 2003, the 1958 Mercury album Winds in Hi-Fi was chosen by the National Recording Preservation Board for the National Recording Registry. Nearly all of Fennell's Mercury recordings were reissued on compact disc. Fennell and the Eastman Wind Ensemble were also featured in the premiere issuance of Mercury material on compact disc. In 1986, 24 Sousa marches performed by the Eastman Wind Ensemble were transferred to compact disc by Philips Records, which now owned the Mercury catalog. Fennell made the first symphonic digital recording in the United States for Telarc with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds, on April 4–5, 1978. The recording included the two Suites for Military Band by Gustav Holst. With the Dallas Wind Symphony, Fennell recorded five programs of music by Nelhybel, Albeniz, Grainger, Bernstein and more, for Reference Recordings. Fennell also recorded for Brain, Columbia Records, Delos, King, Kosei, Ludwig, Premier Recordings, and Sine Qua Non Superba not to mention the Library of Congress label.

Source: • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. American Concert Band Masterpieces. Mercury Records MG40006/MG50079, 1953. • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. Marches by Sousa and Other. Mercury Records MG40007/MG50080, 1953. • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. La Fiesta Mexicana. Mercury Records MG40011/MG50084, 1954. • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. Folk Song Suites and Other British Band Classics. Mercury Records MG40015/MG50088, 1955. • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. Marching Along. Mercury Records MG50105/MWS5-14/SR90105, 1956. • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. Hindemith/Schoenberg/Stravinsky. Mercury Records MG501434/SR90143, 1957. • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. British Band Classic, Vol. 2. Mercury Records MG50197/SR90197, 1958. • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. Sousa on Review (Marches by John Philip Sousa). Mercury Records MG50284/SR90284, 1961. • Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell, conductor. Screamers! (Circus Marches). Mercury Records MG50314/SR90314, 1957.