Brian Fennelly

"A portion of Evanescences for instruments and tape was choreographed by Linda Diamond as Brinkscape and presented by the Linda Diamond Dance Company at the Woodstock (NY) Community Center in May. I remain professor emeritus at New York University and co-director of the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society (www.wscms.org), now in its twenty-seventh season of presenting compelling concerts of vital new music in New York City and described by Fanfare Magazine as 'among the world's most outstanding new music ensembles.' My SAI webpage URL is http://sai-national.org/phil/composers/bfennell.html, and my e-mail address is FennellyBL@aol.com. I am also the proud grandfather of Sigol Sara Fennelly, born May 6, 2003, in Paris, France, to Liam Fennelly and Atieh Asgharzadeh. Liam remains active in Europe as a viola da gamba player and is touring worldwide as a musician with the Belgian Ballet Company's avant-garde production Foi."

Premieres

Consort II: Photogram was written for and premiered by the Prism Saxophone Quartet at Trinity Center for Urban Life, Philadelphia, PA, on May 15, 2003, and at Christ and St. Stephen's in New York, NY, on May 18. New York Philharmonic principal trombonist Joseph Alessi gave the U.S. premiere of Corollary IV in recital at Nyack (NY) College, on August 2, accompanied by pianist Kimberly Russ. Skyscapes III for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano was premiered by the Da Capo Chamber Players at Merkin Hall, New York, NY, on October 8. All three of these pieces were written in France in 2002 while on a Camargo Foundation fellowship.

Performances

Arias and Interludes (String Quartet No. 2) was given three performances by the Pro Arte String Quartet at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; the Portage Center for the Arts; and the Elvehjem Museum of Art in Madison, WI, during November 2002. As a finalist in the 2003 Hultgren Solo Cello Works Biennial, the newly revised version of the solo cello fantasy, Tesserae II, received three performances by cellist Craig Hultgren: at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on July 27, at Georgia State University in Atlanta on September 9, and at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on September 16. Contrabass trombonist David Bobroff presented Tesserae IV at the International Trombone Festival in Helsinki, Finland on August 7, and saxophonist David Pituch played Tesserae VIII at the Recontres Internationales Musicale en Catalogne in Ceret, France on August 4. Skyscapes III received an additional performance at Merkin Hall, New York, NY, by the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society on October 13. Both Variations on Watkins Ale and Tombeau and Tango were performed by the viol consort, Parthenia, in recitals in New York at St. Francis of Assisi and St. Jean Baptiste churches on October 23 and 25, respectively.

Publications

Three's Company, flute/piccolo, alto saxophone, piano; Needham Publishing Co. Skyscapes III, mixed quintet; Consort II: Photogram, saxophone quartet; American Composers Edition (American Composers Alliance). Tesserae II, solo cello; Monogram, solo piano; Prelude and Elegy, brass quintet; Empirical Rag, original brass quintet version; all newly revised and available from the American Composers Alliance in computer-generated editions

Recordings

The most recent full CD recording of Brian Fennelly's orchestral music on the Albany label (TROY 491), which features the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joel Eric Suben, with soloists Chris Gekker, trumpet, and Boguslaw Furtok, double bass, was extensively reviewed at www.classicalcdreview.com by Steve Schwartz who comments, "Fennelly actually creates structures clear to the ear, rather than to the eye alone. Arrhythmia is simply one technique, not a composition Weltanschauung, and he can write lively dances and even eloquent songs. He writes colorful, sensuous orchestra. Clarity's the watchword." Of Thoreau Fantasy No. 2, he comments "one is aware of a rhapsodic, ecstatic quality, a striving for transcendence, such as one finds in Ives . . taut thematic argument, but the technique always serves the emotion of the piece." Of Lunar Halos for double bass and orchestra he writes "a beautiful, substantive work, gorgeously written for the solo instrument." The full review is available at the Classical CD Review website. (Included on the CD are Chrysalis, Thoreau Fantasy No. 2, Lunar Halos, Concert Piece for Trumpet and Orchestra, and Reflections/Metamorphoses.)

Further Information

• 2001-2002 American Composers Update
• 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