Gerard Weber grew up in Canada listening to Paul Desmond songs with his grandparents. He clutched onto every note the saxophone produced and started playing the instrument in fifth grade.
Michael Shine stumbled into band class as a shy, clueless sixth-grader. He picked up the brassy saxophone and has been playing it for 10 years.
What they have in common, besides the instrument, is they will both be playing at UF’s Adolphe Sax Bicentennial Festival. The event celebrates the 200th birthday of Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.
Musicians and students from around the world will gather at UF’s Music Building and University Auditorium starting today until Saturday. It will be the only festival in the world, outside of Belgium, celebrating Sax.
“It’s hard to imagine myself without the saxophone,” said Weber, a second-year UF music graduate student.
He moved from cold Canada to sunny Florida in August 2013. His friends warned him multiple times about his wooden saxophone reed growing mold once he moved.
As soon as he got to UF, he took it out and saw black spots all over it, transforming his reed into a musical leopard overnight.
“It was my welcome to Florida,” Weber said.
Originally from Belgium, Sax went bankrupt three times and was spied on by rivals after he moved to Paris. He also invented the saxhorn and saxotromba.
“He has a sad story, but he was a genius,” said Jonathan Helton, a UF professor and the festival host.
The event will have master classes by international guest artists, a documentary and concerts showing saxophone music through the ages.
“The saxophone is a popular instrument, but people will be able to see the many faces of it,” Helton said. “Plus, they can meet saxophonists from all over the world, which doesn’t happen every day.”
The festival kicks off today with a UF Wind Symphony Concert at 7:30 p.m. in the University Auditorium. The piece will emphasize the versatility of the saxophone, showing that it’s not just for jazz music.
“I don’t get nervous anymore because I’ve done thousands of concerts, but there’s always a musical aspect to performing that I get caught up in,” Helton said. “It’s a very moving experience.”
On Friday, students from Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin will perform a concert of saxophone chamber music, and lectures about the entrepreneurial side to music.
There will be concerts spanning the history of the saxophone on Saturday.
