as published in PAN PIPES, Volume 95, Number 2

Brian Fennelly

"My residency at the Camargo Foundation center in Cassis, France, for the Winter-Spring semester 2002 was most productive, with the completion of four new pieces in manuscript, including Skyscapes III, for five players; Consort II: Photogram, for the Prism Saxophone Quartet; Corollary IV; and Tombeau and Tango.In March, I was awarded a fellowship to the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy. I remain professor emeritus at New York University and co-director of the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, now in its 26th season of presenting compelling concerts of vital new music in New York City."  Including his recent CD (see Recordings), funded in part by a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, eleven of Brian Fennelly's orchestral works are available in CD recordings. For more information, please see the www.wscms.org website, or contact him by E-mail at FennellyBL@aol.com or brian.fennelly.grd.musc@aya.yale.edu.

Premieres

Arias and Interludes (String Quartet No. 2), commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation for the Pro Arte Quartet, was premiered by the quartet at Merkin Hall, New York, NY, on December 3, 2002. Corollary IV (2002), for trombone and piano, was commissioned and introduced by New York Philharmonic trombonist Joseph Alessi with pianist Roberto Arioso at Castello degli Acaja in Fossano, Italy in July 2002. On a program at the Maverick Concert Hall, in Woodstock, NY on August 31, 2002, Maverick Concerts for Parthenia presented Variations on Watkins Ale (2001, based on the tune Watkins Ale), commissioned by the group, a robust parody for viola da gamba quartet (treble, tenor and two bass viols) in which one of the players has a rhythmically noticeable drinking problem; and Tombeau and Tango (2002), for two bass viols, a memorial response to the death of Vincent Wagner, the Maverick Concerts Artistic Director.

Publications

Variations on Watkins Ale, Tombeau and Tango, Corollary IV, all by American Composers Edition (ACA).

Recordings

Five orchestral works; the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Joel Eric Suben, conductor, with soloists Chris Gekker, trumpet, and Boguslaw Furtok, bass viol; Albany Records Troy491 CD, June 2002.

Further Information

• 2000-2001 American Composers Update
• 1999-2000 American Composers Update
• 1998-1999 American Composers Update
• 1997-1998 American Composers Update
• 1996-1997 American Composers Update
• SAI's Music for Young People section