Sunday, December 4, 2011

Thank you, Himie Voxman

     Whatever in life we do, we owe thanks to people we have never met. Our success as individuals rest on the shoulders of those who have come before us. As a saxophonist I say thanks to the late Himie Voxman. I have never met this man, and if I sat next to him on a bus I would not have had a clue who he was. So why am I writing a blog about a man who I could not recognize on a bus? because he was a great influence to many of us who play woodwind instruments; in my case saxophone.

     Himie Voxman was a clarinetist who believed in the possibilities of the saxophone, and carried out his believe by writing saxophone methods for the instrument. Himie Voxman is also known for being the teacher of world renowned concert saxophonist Eugene Rousseau. In 1939, Voxman  joined the teaching staff at the University of Iowa; retiring in 1980. In 1995, the University of Iowa School of Music honored him by renaming their music building the Voxman Music Building. Himie Voxman died on November 22, 2011, at the age of 99, at his retirement residence.

     When I was a music education major at Oakland University, my concert saxophone teacher Dr. James Dawson assigned the Voxman Saxophone Method as my study method. The Voxman method challenged me greatly with sequential studies in all major and minor keys, technique, and studies of expression and interpretation. Voxman has provided not just saxophonist, but all of us who play woodwind family insturments with music resources we can study, play, and enjoy.

     Although I ( and probably others who play woodwinds ) would not have known I was sitting next to Himie Voxman on that imaginary bus, I am thankful to Himie Voxman for gathering and publishing studies for me grow and develop as a  saxophonist. Himie Voxman is one of those people who I have never met, but is responsible for the music studies that make-it possible for me to board that bus to the concert hall where I am playing.

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