Service Organizations). Eastman Wind Ensemble While Fennell was recuperating from hepatitis for six weeks in 1952, the idea for a new, smaller type of symphonic band occurred to him: scaling the typical concert band down to the size of the wind section of a symphony orchestra, allowing for greater clarity and better intonation. He recruited nearly 40 players in May 1952 for this, explaining, “I chose the best students in the school, the best solo performers and the best ensemble players." On September 20, 1952 he conducted the first rehearsal for this new Eastman Wind Ensemble, and its first concert at Eastman's Kilbourn Hall on February 8, 1953. Desiring expanded repertoire, he wrote to nearly 400 composers around the world commissioning appropriate compositions for the new group. The first three composers to respond were Percy Grainger, Vincent Persichetti and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Fennell's recordings Conducting the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and various other groups, Fennell recorded many of the standards of the wind band repertoire. He became one of America's most-recorded conductors. Starting with "American Concert Band Masterpieces" in 1953, Fennell recorded over 300 compositions on 29 albums for Mercury Records with the Eastman-Rochester "Pops", London "Pops" (actually the London Symphony Orchestra in shirt-sleeves), and free-lance groups of New York musicians. However, best known are the 22 of the 29 Mercury releases made with Fennell's own Eastman Wind Ensemble. One of these albums, Lincolnshire Posy, with music by Percy Grainger (recorded in 1958), was selected by Stereo Review magazine as one of the 50 best recordings of the Centenary of the Phonograph 1877-1977. 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 1961, Fennell received a citation and a medal from the Congressional Committee for the Centennial of the Civil War for this album. In 2003, the 1958 Mercury album Winds in Hi-Fi was chosen by the National Recording Preservation Board for the National Recording Registry. Nearly all of Fennell's Mercury recordings were reissued on compact disc. Fennell and the Eastman Wind Ensemble were also featured in the premiere issuance of Mercury material on compact disc. 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.