Frederick Fennell /fəˈnɛl/ (July 2, 1914 – December 7, 2004) was an American conductor and one of the primary figures who promoted the Eastman Wind Ensemble as a performing group.

In Fennell's New York Times obituary, colleague Jerry F. Junkin was quoted as saying "He was arguably the most famous band conductor since John Philip Sousa.

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 Camp Zeke.

In the John Adams High School orchestra, Fennell performed as the kettledrummer and served as the band's drum major.

[citation needed] Fennell formed a compatible and fruitful relationship with the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

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.

[citation needed] 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).

The two-volume Civil War-Its Music and Its Sounds, recorded in December 1960, was a notable set also made with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, this time performing on period or original instruments.

In 1986, 24 Sousa marches performed by the Eastman Wind Ensemble were transferred to compact disc by Philips Records, which now owned the Mercury catalog.

He remained highly active in the world of conducting until a few months before his death at the age of ninety at his home in Siesta Key, Florida.

[6] Fennell received Columbia University's Alice M. Ditson Conductor's Award in 1969, was presented the Star of the Order from the John Philip Sousa Memorial Foundation in 1985, received an honorary doctorate from Eastman in 1988, and was inducted into the National Band Association Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors in 1990.

In 2003, he received the Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award from Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at its national convention in Washington, DC.

[citation needed] He also edited for several music publishers: Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer, Theodore Presser, and Sam Fox.

He also wrote a series of sixteen articles published in The Instrumentalist under the heading ‘Basic Band Repertory’ beginning in April 1975 and concluding in February 1984.

These articles were devoted to what Fennell called "...indestructible masterpieces for band that have survived the ravages of time and many an inept conductor".