Love for Fenno

Love for Fenno
 
Fenno, there is no question that you are the most important influence from my time at Yale.  Though I had played the piano and viola for years, I didn't even start singing seriously until I was a college freshman.  And now singing is my primary lifetime passion, one that I cherish and will always credit to you for inspiration.
 
Starting with preparations for the Berlioz Requiem under Robert Shaw in freshman year, you taught me about musicianship, fellowship with generations of Yale alumni, and, somehow amid those experiences, all the lessons of life that really matter.  You gave your students such pride in representing a top ensemble consistently for concert after concert, tour after tour.  And boy, was it fun!  All good singers know that the real joys of a chorus are in the rehearsals, and I never went to a Glee Club practice without high anticipation for what we would experience.
 
Your continuing friendship after we both "graduated" in1992 means the world to me.  Thanks for all the Yale Club caroling gigs, the Milton workshops, the Grunt recording sessions, the Singing Dinners and reunions, your Robert Shaw bio that we published at Scribners, and our time together working on glee club history projects and the "Fennobilia" exhibit at the Music Library.
 
One of my favorite Fenno quotes is from one of the later Milton workshops.  Speaking of the audience, you instructed: "Give them better than they deserve!"  This, Fenno, is exactly what you have done for us, and we are the richer for it.
 
With peace and love,
Tim DeWerff '92