Dear Carol,
The older I got and get, the more I appreciate Fenno, especially after I started doing it myself. He had not only the musical gifts of urging a group to sing musically, beyond issues of intonation and ensemble and into wonderful dynamics, articulation and shaping of phrase, but he had the charm and the steel to inspire and compel us to do it! And I remain so influenced by his high standards of voicings and harmony in my own writing. He said to me once after the Whiffs of ?? beautifully sang his arrangement of "Berkeley Square" - "and it's easy!", which it wasn't, entirely, it just worked so well....
And I will always be grateful when as a prelude to my arrival here, he invited me to direct the YGC European tour of 1990, which prepared me better than anything else could for returning to choral music after an absence of 25 years spent singing.
The spring concert of the Washington University Concert Choir (on April 17, plug....) will be dedicated to Fenno. We'll do "The Greatest of these is Love", one of my favorites, and "Lonesome Valley" and one other.
Fondly and faithfully,
John
John Stewart
Director of Vocal Activities
Department of Music
Washington University
St. Louis MO
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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