F. Fennell, 90; Conductor at Eastman Redefined Wind Bands

Frederick Fennell, a classical music conductor and teacher acclaimed for creating an innovative wind ensemble at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., has died. He was 90.

Fennell died in his sleep Tuesday at his home in Siesta Key, Fla., his family said.

In 1952, while bedridden with hepatitis for six weeks, Fennell conceived of redefining the typical band of winds and brass by reducing the number of players and emphasizing musical dexterity and virtuosity.

His Eastman Wind Ensemble, signed by Mercury Records in the 1950s, went on to record 22 albums.

The band has had only four conductors during its 52-year history -- Fennell (1952-61), A. Clyde Roller (1962-64), Donald Hunsberger (1965-2002) and Mark Davis Scatterday.

Fennell’s creation revised the way music students learn to play wind instruments. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians credited him with bringing about a “reconsideration of the wind medium, establishing a model for the 20,000 wind ensembles subsequently established in American schools.”

“He’s one of those rare people that can say they created something that lasts 52 years and has caught on all over the world,” Scatterday said in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

In a recent interview with the newspaper, Fennell said he believed that “the most important thing about the Eastman Wind Ensemble is that it forced composers to take wind music more seriously. Because of us, they started to write a whole new repertory for wind ensembles.”

A native of Cleveland, Fennell came to Eastman as a student in 1933 and joined the faculty six years later.

After retiring in 1965, he was guest conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Dallas Wind Symphony, and conductor in residence of the University of Miami School of Music.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and a daughter, Cathy Fennell Martensen.