Phillip de Fremery was
born into a pioneer California family and was raised in Ross,
just to the north of
San Francisco. As a toddler,
still barely able to reach the keyboard of the family piano,
he surprised his parents by describing distinctions
in color between the black
and the white notes, an ability in hearing which was later to
be identified as perfect pitch. In
his early years of grammar
school he began to play by ear, on the piano, Christmas carols
and even movements of symphonies,
for his classmates in public
school. Formal lessons began at age six and lasted until he
was twelve, at which time his parents
finally agreed that the
boy would rather play baseball than the piano. He did however
spend the next five years playing the piano,
still by ear, arranging
popular music for his family and friends. All the while a number
of his older cousins (one of whom was already
nationally known) were
playing the guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle at the large
family holiday gatherings at Coastways, his
grandparents’ ranch just north of Santa Cruz. Then, according
to Phillip, one of those
cousins agreed to show the very eager teenager some chords on
the guitar.
Things moved rapidly from
there. The guitar was seldom
out of his hands, which
was ironically aided by a finger injury which had, one year earlier, put an end
to his endless hours on the baseball diamond. He began a constant exchange of
arrangements with the cousin who had begun to teach him. He learned to play folk
music and began appearing as backup guitarist and vocalist for a brilliant young
player and singer who had transferred into his high school for junior and senior
year. And around the midpoint of that period, in 1963, a Decca Gold Label recording
of Andrés Segovia somehow (no one seems to remember) found its way into
his parents’ home.
The effect of Segovia’s playing was instantaneous and the boy knew it had
set his future course of action in stone. The family searched for a classical
guitar instructor, however in those days they were few and far between. When
one was finally located, he looked at the boy’s finger injury and told him
immediately that he "would never be able to play like Segovia" but
that he would be willing to give him lessons nevertheless. At this the sixteen-year-old
stood, left the room without a word, and never went back. A few months later
another teacher was located. This one had actually studied with Segovia and after
a few lessons she indicated that she took the boy very seriously indeed. He progressed
rapidly under her guidance until finally he auditioned for, and was accepted
by, the internationally famous Oscar Ghiglia (who one year earlier had been named
as Segovia’s teaching assistant) for his Los Angeles master class of 1965.
He then gave his first full public concert (1966) and in that same year was accepted
as a student by Segovia himself, in the Maestro’s master classes which served
to dedicate and establish the newly founded department of the guitar under Jesus
Silva at the North Carolina School of the Arts. By this time de Fremery had enrolled,
on full scholarship, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under Michael
Lorimer. Yet still, whenever Oscar Ghiglia toured in the U.S. he was always there,
performing for the young Italian Maestro as much as possible. Finally in 1971
Ghiglia, recently appointed to create the guitar master classes at the Aspen
Music Festival, chose Phillip as his own personal assistant and placed the young
performer solely in charge of his own classes there.
The Aspen exposure, plus letters of recommendation from Maestros Segovia and
Ghiglia, led to the immediate expansion of de Fremery’s career. In the next
five years he gave several hundred concerts throughout the United States, Canada
and Central Europe not only as soloist but also in concerto appearances with
orchestra, radio and television, and in scores of master classes under his own
name. Acclaimed by the public, professionals and critics alike, he experienced
a very high rate of return engagement as well as a spiraling increase in the
quantity of appearances offered to him.
Then in 1975 the young guitarist, in a move which surprised
and even baffled his contemporaries, resigned the Aspen position with the
announcement that
he was undertaking a radical overhaul of his technique of sound production.
He knew, and so did all concerned, that this effort was going to be extremely
complex, and more than fifteen years did pass before his control was re-established
to the point where he was once again able to "think out loud" through
the guitar while on stage. This long absence effectively destroyed the momentum
of his earlier career and mostly limited his activity to teaching and performing
in his general area of residence in New England.
For a detailed description of Phillip de Fremery's technical conversion of 1975, please follow this link.
In the latter stages of de Fremery’s long struggle to regain his command
of the guitar, the world noted the passing of its beloved Maestro, Andrés
Segovia. In the multi-faceted process of commemorating his life and career
his wife Mme. Emilia Segovia, the Marquesa de Salobreña, in an extremely
unusual move and at the suggestion of Eliot Fisk, contacted Phillip de Fremery
in 1995 and commissioned him to create new handwritten manuscripts, complete
with articulation and string indications, directly from the commercial recordings
and entirely by ear, of the fifty-six performance editions which during his
lifetime Segovia had not had time to publish and for which no manuscripts survived.
The process was immediately begun. It was to take five full years and the result,
in book form, was released by Bèrben in 2001.
At this point Mme. Segovia scheduled the dedication of the Casa Museo de
Andrés
Segovia for June of 2002 in his birthplace of Linares, Spain. On her personal
invitation de Fremery attended the full four days of concerts (Oscar Ghiglia
and the Orquestra de Cámara de Andrés Segovia) and lectures.
(Carlos Andrés Segovia, the son of Andrés and Emilia, a Doctoral
candidate in Philosophy and Director of the Cultural Program of the Andrés
Segovia Foundation) and Angelo Gilardino, the Artistic Director of the Andrés
Segovia Foundation as well as de Fremery’s editor for the abovementioned
Bèrben publication, "Transcripciones" by
Andrés Segovia.
Critical response to the arrival of "Transcripciones" has
been decisive. Writing in April 2003 for the distinguished English monthly,
Classical Guitar Magazine, Stephen Kenyon noted: “It’s rather
difficult to know how to begin. We shall make do with the bare statement
that this is the most important (and largest) document I have ever reviewed,
and that it took by far the greatest amount of effort to create…it
is also perhaps the easiest book ever to review: literally every guitarist
of competence, curiosity and interest in the instrument's history should
purchase this book if it is the last book they buy...an outstanding opportunity
to look over his shoulder at the decisions he made regarding the textural
and technical realization of these works…as close as we will ever get
to what can only be viewed as by far the most important, influential and
historically persuasive transcription process ever to be conducted on the
guitar’s behalf…for once the term ‘historic’ is an
understatement.”
A second review of Transcripciones appeared, this one from
the other side of the Atlantic, in the 2004-2005 quarterly publication
of the Guitar Foundation
of America, SOUNDBOARD Vol. XXX, No. 4. Dr. Christopher Leible wrote: “The
transcriptions contained in this volume are the result of years of detailed
and attentive effort by Phillip de Fremery, a guitarist whose remarkable
hearing and musical sensitivity are unequivocally established in this edition.
The prefatory remarks reveal his acute artistic vision, as well as his reverence
for Segovia and his contributions to the guitar...each piece is meticulously
and thoroughly notated; incredibly, de Fremery has painstakingly notated
Segovia's original fingerings, as well as indicated which strings to play
on. Moreover, the compositions presented in this volume are of exceptionally
high caliber, thus requiring superior technical facility and musical adeptness
for their successful performance.
For the discriminating guitarist, this volume will prove
to be a vital musical lexicon for understanding the vast repertoire, musical
sensitivity, stylistic
respect and performance capacity of Andrés Segovia. Furthermore, the
delicate musical lessons that can be derived from within these works provide
a myriad of details for self-development of the individual musician.
Berbèn has acutely prepared this edition with the performer in mind.
The publication is perfect bound, allowing the score to lie flat for the facility
of reading; ample note and staff spacing provide for clarity of the music and
personal markings; additionally, both covers have page extensions to hold the
music in place.
This publication is a superlative paradigm of an attentive
collaborative effort by all involved in its realization. Its importance
as a window into
the cognizant ideologies of Segovia and as an addition to the classic guitar
repertoire cannot be overestimated. This publication will undoubtedly become
an indispensable resource for the classical guitar community.”
At this point Phillip de Fremery has concentrated once again on his personal work, and he hopes to return to his regular cycle of performances in Western Massachusetts by the Fall of 2015.
