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Living legend to conduct St. Olaf Festival of Bands

By David Gonnerman '90
November 5, 2003

This year?s Festival of Bands, featuring guest conductor Dr. Frederick Fennell, will draw 165 students from 85 Minnesota high schools to St. Olaf College. The day?s rehearsals will culminate in a concert on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. in Skoglund Center Auditorium.

Fennell-large
Frederick Fennell has reportedly received every band award available throughout the world.
St. Olaf will confer an honorary degree on Fennell in a ceremony on Friday, Nov. 7 at 10:10 a.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel. The ceremony will include remarks by Fennell and a performance by the St. Olaf Band. There will also be a reception in the Crossroads of Buntrock Commons.

Friday?s ceremony and Saturday?s concert are free and open to the public.

The concert will include performances by the Festival Band (made up of the participating high school students), St. Olaf?s Norseman Band and the St. Olaf Band. The program includes ?The Jig Is Up? by Northfield composer Daniel Kallman, ?Flourish? by St. Olaf Band Conductor Timothy Mahr, English Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams, ?Agora? by St. Olaf junior Carl Schroeder and works by Sousa, Grieg and Copland.

Fennell, currently principal guest conductor for the Dallas Wind Symphony, will conduct one piece with each ensemble. Other conductors for the festival are Mahr, St. Olaf Norseman Band Conductor Paul Niemisto and St. Olaf Instructor of Oboe Mark Seerup.

Fennell is perhaps the most famous wind ensemble conductor in the world. ?Students are performing with the Festival Band because of two things,? says St. Olaf Band Conductor Timothy Mahr. ?They will have the chance to perform in a large band made up of some of the finest student musicians from across the state and they will be led by a top-notch guest conductor. This year we have arguably one of the very best ever in Dr. Fennell. I would think that the students will come away knowing that they made music with a living legend.?

This visit continues a long-term relationship between Fennell and St. Olaf. In addition to being a sabbatical replacement for the former conductor of the St. Olaf Band, Miles Johnson, in 1977 and 1993, Fennell was a featured clinician on many occasions at the Minnesota Instrumental Conducting Symposium hosted by St. Olaf from 1979 to 1993.

According to Mahr, many musicians believe that the history of the modern band can be divided into two eras: before Fennell and after Fennell.

Joining the faculty of the Eastman School of Music after earning his bachelor?s and master?s degrees there, Fennell conducted the school?s several ensembles from 1939 to 1962.

In 1952 he formed the Eastman Wind Ensemble. The 45-member ensemble and its programs differed from those of full symphonic bands in that they included chamber compositions to be performed by only part of the ensemble, as well as works played by the entire group.

In 1965 Fennell became conductor-in-residence at the University of Miami, where he remained until 1980. He conducted the Kosei Wind Orchestra of Tokyo from 1984 to 1995.

His high-fidelity and stereo recordings grant Fennell a unique position in the history of recording art. His pioneering series of 22 commercial recordings for Mercury are the standard against which all other ensemble recordings have been compared. They brought about a reconsideration of the wind medium and established performance and literature models for the more than 20,000 wind ensembles that have since been established in American schools.

In 1977, he made the first American digital recording of a large ensemble, for Telarc, with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds. While conducting the Dallas Wind Symphony, he also pioneered high definition compatible digital (HDCD) recordings.

In 1977, Fennell?s recording with the Eastman Wind Ensemble playing Percy Grainger?s Linconshire Posy was selected as one of the ?Fifty Best Recordings of the Centenary of the Phonograph? by Stereo Review.

Fennell, 89, is the recipient of innumerable conducting awards and honors, including the naming of Frederick Fennell Hall in Kofu, Japan, in 1992. He is also a fellow in the Company of Military Historians and an honorary chief of the Kiowa Indians.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-646-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.