Significantly, Fennell’s B.Mus. degree and his Performer’s Diploma (today called the Performer’s Certificate) were the first to be conferred by the Eastman School for performance on tympani and percussion. In completion of the performance requirements for the Performer’s Diploma, Fennell appeared in one of the 1936-37 academic year’s Graduation Recitals with Orchestra, performing the Concerto for Tympani by Kurt Striegler (1886-1958) with the Rochester Civic Orchestra, conducted by Howard Hanson, on April 9th, 1937. His profile in the 1937 yearbook summarized his many extra-curricular activities, which included, in his senior year, playing in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and also serving as an Instrumental Music Supervisor at Pittsford High School.