26 Facts About Frederick Fennell

Frederick Fennell was influential as a band pedagogue, and greatly affected the field of music education in the US and abroad.

Frederick Fennell 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.

Frederick Fennell owned his first drum set at age ten.

Frederick Fennell himself conducted at Interlochen at the age of seventeen.

Frederick Fennell formed a compatible and fruitful relationship with the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

Frederick Fennell became the first person to whom the Eastman School of Music awarded a degree in percussion performance.

Frederick Fennell was 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 Furtwangler.

Frederick Fennell studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in 1942.

Frederick Fennell was appointed Koussevitzky's assistant at the Center in 1948.

In 1961, Frederick Fennell received a citation and a medal from the Congressional Committee for the Centennial of the Civil War for this album.

Frederick Fennell recorded for Brain, Columbia Records, Delos, King, Kosei, Ludwig, Premier Recordings, and Sine Qua Non Superba not to mention the Library of Congress label.

Frederick Fennell was associate music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra from 1962 to 1964.

Frederick Fennell 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.

Frederick Fennell was known to take charge of a room with words alone, and his conducting was extremely animated.

Frederick Fennell's conducting workshops were famous for including calisthenics and baton-technique exercises in swimming pools.

Frederick Fennell remained highly active in the world of conducting until a few months before his death at the age of ninety at his home in Siesta Key, Florida.

Frederick Fennell received the Theodore Thomas Award of the Conductor's Guild in 1994.

Frederick Fennell was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

Frederick Fennell was said to be most fond of the honorary doctorate he was awarded from Eastman, being inducted as an honorary chief of the Kiowa Nation in the 1960s, and receiving a medal of honor from Interlochen in 1989.

Frederick Fennell made frequent appearances guest conducting such ensembles as the Boston Pops Orchestra 1949 to 1978, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the United States Marine Band, Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Interlochen Arts Camp.

Frederick Fennell was a brother of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, and Kappa Kappa Psi, the National Honorary Band Fraternity.

Frederick Fennell Hall was dedicated in Kofu, Japan on July 17,1992.

Frederick Fennell wrote several books: Time and the Winds, a Short History of the Use of Wind Instruments in the Orchestra, Band and the Wind Ensemble, 1954; The Drummer's Heritage, a Collection of Popular Airs and Official US Army Music for Fifes and Drums, 1956; and The Wind Ensemble, 1988.

Frederick Fennell was commissioned by Grenadilla Music to write a major article on 20th Century band composers and their music.

Frederick Fennell wrote a series of sixteen articles published in The Instrumentalist under the heading 'Basic Band Repertory' beginning in April 1975 and concluding in February 1984.

Frederick Fennell wrote an original march in 1951, "Tally-Ho March," in honor of the Tally-Ho Music Camp and its founders, Fred and Dorotha Bradley.