Dr. Fred Hemke Lectures, 1979
In the summer of 1979, Dr. Hemke came to the Fort San Summer Music Camp.
The camp was located in the beautiful Qu'Apelle Valley east of Regina, Saskatchewan. This camp, a former sanitorium, was the hub of summer music activity for 30 years, from 1967 - 1997, attracting hundreds of music students each summer. It also included dance, visual arts, writing and theatre.
In the summer of 1979, Dr. Hemke offered a week long intensive for a select group of saxophone students from Saskatchewan. Students received daily private lessons as well as quartet instruction. The course culminated in a performance of solos, quartets and saxophone choir on the final day of the week.
Nightly Lectures
One of the highlights of the week was a nightly lecture, given by Dr. Hemke, covering a variety of saxophone related topics.
These lectures were, of course, delivered without notes, as Fred sat in a circle with us students, and talked about these topics that he knew so intimately.
With Dr. Hemke's permission, I taped these lectures on my Sony Cassette recorder.
Unfortunately, I did not bring the recorder to the first night's lecture, and so missed the engaging topic on the History of the Saxophone.
Below are these lectures, with all of the passion and personality and humour of this great teacher and mentor.
They are a great compendium of the information that served as the framework of Fred's teaching over the decades of his career.
Enjoy!