Fenno Heath - Accomplishments and Honors

Accomplishments and Honors

• Heath arranged a large number of songs for chorus. While his group was all male, he was dedicated to arrangements for four-part male chorus, known as "TTBB chorus." After 1970, when he added women to his group, his arrangements were mostly for mixed chorus, known as "SATB chorus." His choral arrangements are published by Schirmer, many of them as part of the "Yale Glee Club Series" that was started by his predecessor as Glee Club director, Marshall Bartholomew.

• He also arranged music for male and female a cappella singing groups.

• Heath was active as a composer, creating many works for chorus. Most of his works are based on Christian religious texts or subjects. He wrote for chorus alone, chorus with piano, and chorus with instruments.

• As Glee Club director, Heath led the group on many tours, both domestic and international. Highlights included a round-the-world tour in 1965 and tours to South America, Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia.

• After his retirement, Heath was named "conductor emeritus" of the Glee Club.
• He was awarded the Yale Glee Club Medal for his contributions to the Glee Club.
• He was awarded the Yale Medal for his contributions to the university.
• He was appointed director of the University Glee Club of New Haven in 1955. A position he held until 1986, handing the baton to Mark Dollhopf '77.
• He was named an honorary member of the University Glee Club of New York City.
• He was awarded the Marshall Bartholomew Award by the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, a national association of male choruses
• In 2005, Jeffrey Douma, conductor of the Yale Glee Club, created the Fenno Heath Award, a composition competition for new Yale songs (to rekindle the tradition of prolific composition of Yale-spirited songs around the turn of the 20th century). The competition was named for Heath in honor of his work with YGC, which looked both forwards with innovation and backwards to tradition, a hallmark of the group today.