Editing Frederick Fennell (section)

==Early life==
Fennell was born in [[Cleveland, Ohio]]. He chose piccolo as his primary instrument at the age of seven, as drummer in the fife-and-drum corps at the family's encampment called [https://case.edu/ech/articles/c/camp-zeke Camp Zeke]. He owned his first [[drum set]] at age ten. In the [[John Adams High School (Cleveland, Ohio)|John Adams High School]] orchestra, Fennell performed as the [[kettledrum]]mer and served as the band's [[Drum major (marching band)|drum major]].{{citation needed|  date=October 2014}}

His studies at the [[Interlochen Arts Camp]] (then the [[National Music Camp]]) included being chosen by famed bandmaster [[Albert Austin Harding]] as the bass drummer in the National High School Band in 1931. The band was conducted by [[John Philip Sousa]] on July 26, the program including the premiere of Sousa's Northern Pines march. Fennell himself conducted at Interlochen at the age of seventeen. {{citation needed|  date=October 2014}}

Fennell formed a compatible and fruitful relationship with the [[Eastman School of Music]] in [[Rochester, New York]]. As a student, he organized the first [[University of Rochester]] [[marching band]] for the football team and held indoor concerts with the band after the football season for ten years. At Eastman, he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees (in 1937 and 1939). Fennell became the first person to whom the Eastman School of Music awarded a degree in percussion performance. He was also awarded a fellowship that allowed him to study at the [[Mozarteum Salzburg]] in 1938, where he took several courses with [[Herbert Albert]] and visited several times with the festival's chief conductor, the renowned [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]]. Returning, he sailed on the {{SS|Bremen|1928|6}} from [[Southampton]] on September 3, 1938. For the purpose of the passenger manifest, he signed his name as Frederick Putnam Fennell (a rare use of his middle name).  {{citation needed|  date=October 2014}}

Fennell also studied conducting with [[Serge Koussevitzky]] at the Berkshire Music Center at [[Tanglewood]] in 1942 (with classmates [[Leonard Bernstein]], [[Lukas Foss]] and [[Walter Hendl]]). He was appointed Koussevitzky's assistant at the Center in 1948. In 1944, a California newspaper pictured Fennell examining donated musical instruments for WWII servicemen; he was described  as the "national USO ([[United Service Organizations]]) musical advisor for San Diego County."<ref>"County Citizens Make Contributions." Chula Vista (CA) Star, 3 March 1944, 1.</ref>