How Great Thou Art

Fenno:

What a joy and privilege it was to sing under your direction. So full of life were our rehearsals! I would cherish them and draw energy from them -- the comaraderie, the humor, the music, those wonderful final Fenno chords. How many wonderful concerts! Those trips to the Yale Club in NY for Christmas concerts and watching you conduct the Messiah Sing-in at Lincoln Center. Magical, transformative moments from a beautiful performance of Shenandoah. The War Requiem and Carmina Burana. As I picture the moments I spent with you, the songs that we sang run as a soundtrack through the slideshow of memories. And though you may now be weak and slowed by the illnesses and ailments that you always fought so valiantly, I gain strength from the words that I sang to music that you wrote: "One short sleep past, we wake eternally! . . . . And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die!" I wish you an eternity of music buoyed by all the souls and spirits you lifted in life.

With deep gratitude,
Paul Sarkozi