There Will Never Be Another Fenno

Dear Fenno and Carol,

You are all in our thoughts and hopes in the days ahead, as we think about a wonderfully lived and fully accomplished life and a truly fine human being.

Fenno, you have enriched my musical existence for well over 50 years. From the Liebeslieder waltzes in the Apollo glee club in 1949, to the day in 1950 when you and some close-harmony singers invaded the Saybrook dining hall, to singing Cascade in Washington four years ago, and right up to to this moment. Dozens of Yale Glee Club concerts in New Haven and on the road. The unforgettable rehearsals and performances of The Birds in 1952. A Glee Club concert you led in Paris in the 1970s. Then there are songs and arrangements, like Liza, that you may not have thought about for years. So many great moments. It was my great luck and privilege to have sung with and learned from you.

But those are personal feelings. Much more important is what you have done for music at Yale and for Yale itself, and the testimony is everywhere. With due respect to others, there will never be another Fenno.

John Trattner, 1952