April 18, 1997

Celebration of the Career of Emory Fanning

A memorable musical event will welcome in the month of May when

retiring Professor of Music Emory Fanning leads a chorus of more

than 200 friends, neighbors, students, former students and a 65-piece

professional orchestra, to present Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem

(The German Requiem) on May 3, at 8:00 p.m. in Pepin Gym

at Middlebury College.

Performed in Middlebury for the first time in history, the Requiem

will commemorate the anniversary of the death of the great composer,

Johannes Brahms, who died 100 years ago in April. Members of

both the Community and College Choirs, Middlebury choir alumni

returning from all over the U.S. and abroad will join conductor

Emory Fanning and soloists Andrew Wentzel ‘73 and Nancy Krumm

Sichler ‘71 to present the Requiem, one of the greatest

choral works ever composed.

“It is really a thrill of a lifetime of music making,”

says Prof. Fanning. “The German Requiem is unmatched

for beauty and expression of our deepest emotions. It is the

great Romantic choral masterpiece.”

Fanning has been a challenging model as teacher, conductor, and

performer throughout 30 years of service to Middlebury College,

and is both respected and loved by generations of students. He

joined the faculty as College organist, director of the College

choir, and teacher. Over the years, Prof. Fanning, in addition

to bringing the College choir to chapel regularly on Sunday mornings,

has taken the choir on tour throughout New England, the Mid-Atlantic

states, and Florida. He also created two holiday programs for

public radio, “Christmas in Vermont,” and “A Vermont

Christmas,” both performed in Mead Chapel and broadcast during

the holiday season. Fanning founded and conducted the community

chorus, has served as guest conductor with the Vermont Symphony

Orchestra, and will appear as guest soloist with

the VSO in an upcoming program that includes the organ symphony

by Saint-Saëns. For a decade, he and his wife, pianist Diana

Egbers Fanning ‘71, operated the Point Counterpoint Chamber Music

Camp at Lake Dunmore.

With his retirement as director and teacher, Prof. Fanning will

continue to contribute to the musical life of Middlebury by serving,

part-time, as College organist.

Andrew Wentzel ‘73, returning to Middlebury College to lend his

powerful bass-baritone to the evening’s performance, has been

an exciting and commanding figure in opera houses and concert

halls throughout the world. His 1996-97 season’s highlights include

the role of Figaro in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for the

New York City Opera, and of Olin Blitch in Floyd’s Suzannah

for the Central City Opera. Last year’s season brought him to

the Metropolitan Opera, the San Diego Opera, the Ochestre Symphonique

de Montréal, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Colorado

Opera Festival. He is currently a Performing Artist in Residence

at the University of Tennessee.

Nancy Krumm Sichler ‘71, well known in New England for her extensive

solo concert work and her many leading roles with Simsbury Light

Opera, has also performed in Connecticut Concert Opera productions

as well as with the Vermont Symphony Opera, The Talcott String

Quartet, and the Wallingford Symphony. She has been featured

as soprano soloist at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Farmington’s

Barney House, the Paul Mellon Arts Center, and the Chapel of Choate

Rosemary Hall School. A two-time winner of the New Jersey State

Opera Festival award, she also spends summers at the Aspen Music

Festival.

Tickets are on sale at the Middlebury College Box Office (802-443-6433):

$8 general admission; $6 faculty, staff and Middlebury College

seniors; $4 other Middlebury College students.