Dear Fenno,
You were a godsend and *such* a kind mentor to me in my years of graduate conducting study at Yale. I felt very blessed to get into the conducting grad program, but was also very overwhelmed by the "Ivy-ness" of it all. Your warmth, kindness, love of choral
singing, and mentoring made a HUGE difference both in my time at Yale and in my music-making since then. The joys and friendships formed in Hendrie Hall were led by your vision for community ... of singing and working together. Of working hard, of caring about the score, and of caring about each other. I am so very, very thankful for the opportunity you gave me to lead the Freshman Chorus and to start the Summer Chorus. There are some pieces that I will always remember your critiques of or insights on ... to do Randall Thompson's Alleluia faster than he noted, and to make the final chorus of Mendelssohn's Elijah slower and more majestic!
singing, and mentoring made a HUGE difference both in my time at Yale and in my music-making since then. The joys and friendships formed in Hendrie Hall were led by your vision for community ... of singing and working together. Of working hard, of caring about the score, and of caring about each other. I am so very, very thankful for the opportunity you gave me to lead the Freshman Chorus and to start the Summer Chorus. There are some pieces that I will always remember your critiques of or insights on ... to do Randall Thompson's Alleluia faster than he noted, and to make the final chorus of Mendelssohn's Elijah slower and more majestic!
You were always so very, VERY positive and encouraging. You even took time and had such patience to teach me how to arrange pieces! And your encouragement going into all of the graduate recitals was such a heartfelt blessing. And your scores, oh, your scores ... they are a treasure! The spirituals and folk songs ... I love "The Lamb" ... your yearly "Fenno piece" as we'd call it ... you were the first-ever "living composer" for me, and doing your scores WITH you was a revelation. I promise to continue to honor you by programming your scores, Fenno, and by continuing to commission composers. I only hope and pray that I can pass along to my singers and students the same joy of choral singing that you instilled in me. I am blessed to have been your student and will always be very, very proud to say that you were my teacher, mentor and professor. I love you, Fenno!
With much love, thanks and blessings,
Marian
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Dr. Marian Dolan - (DMA '94, MMA '89, MM '88)
Artistic Director, The Choir Project
Naples, FL USA
"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely,
more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before" - Leonard Bernstein
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