Biography
I came to Northwestern in 1962 after teaching music for two years in the public schools of West Allis, Wisconsin and completing graduate study at the University of Rochester. I hold a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, Paris, where in 1955 I became the first American to win this prize in saxophone. My students are found teaching and performing in major educational positions throughout the world.
Currently I am the Louis and Elsie Snydacker Eckstein Emeritus Professor in the Bienen School of Music, where I served for fifty years as Professor, Senior Associate Dean for Administration and Interim Dean of the School of Music.
Junita (Nita) Borg and I were married in 1959. With Nita’s teaching efforts I was allowed to focus on my work as a concert soloist, teacher, clinician, administrator, university professor and university representative. We have two children, Elizabeth (Bethy) and Frederic (Fritz), who have each been influenced, for better or worse, by living with a world-travelled musician. Nita is the family historian and has a phenomenal memory for dates, names, numbers and events.
For twenty years I served as the NU Faculty Representative to the Big Ten Conference and NCAA. In that capacity, I oversaw the NU athletic program and represented the University on behalf of the University’s faculty and administration. I twice chaired the Conference and served on numerous Big Ten and NCAA committees during the years I served.
Besides teaching at Northwestern, I served internationally as an adjudicator, a master teacher, and a concert soloist. I led the Northwestern Saxophone Quartet on a Cultural Exchange tour to the Far East for the US Department of State in 1965. Until recently I have been very active as a recitalist and performer with orchestras and wind ensembles worldwide. Among others, I have recorded with the CSO, the Kronos String Quartet, the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Japan Radio Orchestra, the New Zealand National Symphony, and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. I have produced six CD solo recordings, most recently, Hemke Concerto “Prisms of Light’ for Saxophone and Orchestra by Chicago composer Augusta Read Thomas and Remembrance of Time Past, for saxophone and chamber music ensemble. I continue to serve as an artist representative for the Conn/Selmer Corporation, the D’Addario Corporation (Frederick Hemke Saxophone Reeds) and the Keiser Music Publishing Corporation. Presently, I teach and coach each summer in Snow Pond Maine at the Frederick L. Hemke Saxophone Institute. Since I was a kid, I have continued to do oil painting.
While serving as NEO President in 2014-15, I organized and produced a NEO Directory, established the NEO Newsletter, negotiated free campus parking for Northwestern emeriti, established the criteria for an on-campus NEO space. Being with fellow emeriti at luncheons, dinners and special NEO events remains a high priority in my retirement life.