Robert P. Fountain Papers

Robert P. Fountain was a world-renowned choral conductor and a beloved teacher of singing.  Born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., on December 26, 1917, he was the only child of Robert H. Fountain (1878-1937), a singing teacher and Choral Director, and Bessie M. Pratt Fountain (1870-?), an organist and later Choir Director at the Delaware Avenue Baptist Church (Buffalo, NY).  He began singing lessons at age eight.  By age sixteen, he was recognized as a gifted young baritone by the local music reviewers.  After gaining attention for winning a high school singing competition, he said that he enjoyed music but did not believe that it would become his career.

Educated in the public schools of Buffalo, N.Y., he performed as a soloist in local and regional productions.  During this time he also served as a substitute conductor for his father with the Prospect Avenue Baptist Church Choir in Buffalo.  His father’s death in 1937, led a young Bob to assume the leadership of the fifty-member choir.  He also commuted to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. to continue his musical education where he was a “superior student.”  There he earned his Bachelor of Music in Voice degree in 1941 and his Master of Music in Vocal Literature degree and Performer’s Certificate in 1942.

After graduating from the Eastman School of Music he served on the faculties of Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio (1942-1946) and the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio (1946-1948). Subsequently, he joined the Oberlin Conservatory as an Assistant Professor of Singing (1948-1954) where he would make his mark. Spanning 22 years, he served Oberlin College as Professor of Singing and Director of Choral Organizations (1958-1965), Dean of the Conservatory (1965-1970) and Professor of Choral Conduction (1970-1971).  During this time, Oberlin’s choral program became one of the finest in the nation.  The Oberlin Choir made many tours across the nation and performed at various venues such as New York City’s Town Hall and Philharmonic Hall, as well as Boston’s Symphony Hall.  In 1964, at the invitation of the United States Department of State, the Oberlin College Choir gave nearly 40 concerts in 55 days in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Romania, in southeast Europe. Three days after the Kent State University shootings in 1970, Dean Fountain conducted 250 singers and 70 instrumentalists performing the Mozart Requiem in Washington Cathedral to express dissent and concern in what some have called one of Oberlin's finest hours (from the May 1970 Articles, Awards, Brooklyn, Yale scrapbook).

During his tenure at Oberlin College, Professor Fountain contributed widely to the choral music field.  In 1954-1955, during a sabbatical leave to study at the Vienna Academy of Music and the Performing Arts, he coached the Vienna State Opera.  He taught summer courses at the School of Sacred Music at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City (ca. 1950s).  Professor Fountain also directed the choir of the First Congregational Church of Oberlin, the college’s Chapel Choir and the 230-voice Musical Union.  In 1970-1971, he held a visiting Distinguished Professorship at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York.  Later, he served on the choral panel for the National Endowment of the Arts.

In 1971, he accepted the position of Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  (According to his son, Robert H. Fountain, Wisconsin offered Professor Fountain both a full time position in choral conducting and the opportunity to work in a graduate degree program).  Under his direction, the University developed graduate degrees in choral conducting.  Like the Oberlin College Choir, the UW-Madison Choir toured throughout the Midwest and East Coast and received a great many positive reviews.  In 1973, they toured Venezuela at that country’s invitation.  During the 1973-1974 academic year, Fountain directed the Battell Chapel Choir and the Collegium Chorale as Visiting Professor of Conducting.

Throughout his career, Fountain received significant recognition for his work in the field of music.  In 1964, Mount Union College awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree and in 1987, the College of Wooster did the same. The Oberlin College Alumni Association awarded him the Alumni Medal for Distinguished Service to Oberlin College in 1982. The University of Wisconsin awarded him the Distinguished Teaching Award and the Chancellor’s Award in 1983 and the Board of Regents named him a Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Senior Distinguished Professor. In March of 1996, he received the Weston Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Choral Art from the North Central Division of the American Choral Directories Association.

Professor Fountain’s contributions to the choral conducting community crossed cultural boundaries in significant ways.  His presentation of the Ukrainian Bell Carol so inspired another conductor in the audience, Irina Sablina (later conductor of the Schedrych Youth Choir in Kiev), that she conducted the piece of music in the same manner.  Over the next thirty years, Professor Fountain’s interpretation (of the Ukrainian Bell Carol) became the standard.  A colleague, William Weinert, described Fountain in his remarks at the Oberlin College Tribute as a “concentrated, unstoppable force of nature” and “a beam of pure musical energy at work.” He went on to say that Fountain “was the ‘pull of infinity,’ pulling minds and voices and spirits with him.  After that force confronted us we were never the same again.” Former students from both Oberlin College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in their notes echoed this sentiment expressed by his colleague in 1996.

Robert Fountain married Clara E. Cox (b. 1919) of Minerva, Ohio in 1941.  Together they had one son, Robert H. Fountain (b. 1943).

In 1994, Robert P. Fountain retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and returned to Oberlin.  He and his wife resided at the Kendal at Oberlin retirement community.  He died there in May of 1996.  His contributions as a faculty member were so significant that both Oberlin College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison held tribute concerts. The Oberlin Tribute Concert (1996), led by award winning conductor Robert Shaw, resulted in the creation of an endowed scholarship fund in Robert P. Fountain’s name.

Mrs. Clara Cox Fountain died on November 1, 2005, at Kendal in Oberlin, Ohio.

Sources Consulted

Faculty File of Robert P. Fountain, Alumni and Development Records (RG 28/3)

Robert P. Fountain Papers (RG 30/368)

Obituary for Clara Cox Fountain (case file)

Additional assistance provided by the donor, Robert H. Fountain.

Note written by Joanne O'Dell and Kenneth M. Grossi