{"id":16448,"date":"2026-03-20T11:09:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esm4.esm.rochester.edu\/sibley\/?p=16448"},"modified":"2026-03-18T14:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:59:13","slug":"mar20-mar26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esm4.esm.rochester.edu\/sibley\/2026\/03\/mar20-mar26\/","title":{"rendered":"March 20th-26th: Fennell conducts the U of R Symphony Band"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1710950670513{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”]<\/p>\n

Published on March 20, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n

Back to This Week at Eastman<\/a><\/div>\n

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Eighty-seven years ago this week, on the evening of March 23rd, 1936, an industrious undergraduate named Fred Fennell conducted the second annual concert of the University of Rochester Symphony Band in the Eastman Theater.\u00a0 The Symphony Band was the direct result of the University of Rochester Marching Band that young Fennell had founded in the fall of 1933 when, as a new arrival at the Eastman School of Music, he had sought out the University\u2019s marching band, only to be informed that no such band existed. Fennell had been drum major of the marching band of John Adams High School in his native Cleveland; undaunted, he set about organizing a marching band with himself as its director.[1]<\/a> <\/sup>The genesis of the Symphony Band was briefly sketched in the February, 1936 issue of the Eastman School Alumni Bulletin <\/em>(that page displayed here). \u00a0That spring, the U of R Symphony Band was acknowledged in the Eastman School\u2019s yearbook for the first time with a full-page profile in The Score 1936 <\/em>(displayed here).<\/p>\n

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The program for the Symphony Band\u2019s March, 1936 concert is displayed here. \u00a0The program was an eclectic one, with original works programmed alongside transcriptions. \u00a0Fennell\u2019s abiding sense of history was manifest in his selection of the Symphony in B-flat <\/em>by Paul Fauchet, believed at that time to have been the first symphony composed for band.\u00a0 In addition, the English band tradition was represented in the transcription by Gustav Holst of J. S. Bach\u2019s Fugue \u00e0 la Gigue.\u00a0 <\/em>Two Eastman School composers were also acknowledged by way of the transcription of one movement from Howard Hanson\u2019s Symphony no. 1 (\u201cNordic\u201d) and the Five Miniatures <\/em>by faculty member Paul White.[2]<\/a><\/sup> \u00a0The Dance of the Russian Sailors <\/em>was a selection that Fennell would later record with the Eastman Rochester Pops Orchestra.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For the record, the printed program for the Symphony Band\u2019s first-ever concert (March 18, 1935) is also displayed here.<\/p>\n

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\u25ba Printed program for the UR Symphony Band concert of March 23rd, 1936. The concert featured original works for band alongside transcriptions. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u25ba Printed program for the UR Symphony Band\u2019s first-ever concert, given on March 18th, 1935. Following this concert the young Fennell wrote to his mentor Albert Austin Harding at the University of Illinois, \u201cThe fellows are a real bunch. They don\u2019t have to play in the band . . .let alone under an obscure conductor, yet we worked together and last Friday evening saw the fruits of our labor and the realization of my life\u2019s ambition come true. \u2026I am all for bands and you know that is where I intend to do my work.\u201d Letter (March 21, 1935) from Fred Fennell to Albert Austin Harding. Original in the Albert Austin Harding Papers at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music; photocopy in the Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library. <\/span><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Fennell briefly recounted the history of the marching band and the symphony band in the \u201cFennell Narrative\u201d that was recorded in February, 1993 and published in Roger E. Rickson\u2019s book Ffortissimo!: A Bio-discography of Frederick Fennell, the first forty years 1953 to 1993 <\/em>(Ludwig Music Publishing, 1993).<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Served on the ESM faculty from 1928 until his retirement in 1965.\u00a0 Although a composer, his principal duties were orchestral conducting.<\/span><\/p>\n

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