"Fenno. The definition…of a great conductor, a great teacher, and a great man, kind and good."
Dear Fenno,
You, Carol, and your loving family are in the hearts of all who were blessed to know you and to sing under your direction.
Filled with love and joy for music, you imparted these qualities to us. Unfailingly gracious, generous, and noble in the face of the challenges involved, you inspired us to reach for some transcendent goal that we did not know we could reach until we had done it.
Your masterpieces of composition, so many arrangements of great insight and profound respect for the material at hand---singing these with you made the experience all the more personal. Your ingenious conducting technique - an elegant ballet that swept delighted choristers up and into the many sound worlds that you created, filled with magic and crackling with electrical sparks.
Oh, Fenno! To once again be singing with you, to feel the entire chorus rising to meet the demands of your gestures and directions. To feel once again the surging power of those FFF sections, and the instant swoops to PPP, all riding as it were on the wings of song. But really on the wings of your technique and musical knowledge. And your brilliant wit.
What a gift, dearest Fenno, what a gift you have been to all who know you.
With deepest love and admiration,
Warren H Rothman, ‘65
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