Introduction

Biography

Robert was the son of Er­ic and Georg­i­na Flem­ing, and hu­sband of Mar­ga­ret Pound.

When he was young, his fa­mi­ly set­tled in Sas­ka­toon, where he first stu­died with his mo­ther. In 1937, he went to Eng­land, stu­dy­ing at the Roy­al Col­lege of Mu­sic with Ar­thur Ben­ja­min (pi­ano) and Her­bert How­ells (com­po­si­tion).

Upon re­turn to Ca­na­da in 1940, he gave a de­but con­cert at Darke Hall, Re­gi­na, then a re­cit­al tour of Sas­katch­e­wan.

He con­tin­ued stu­dy­ing pi­ano with Ly­ell Gus­tin in Sas­ka­toon. Dur­ing that time, he be­came the as­sist­ant or­gan­ist at the Church of St. Al­ban the Mar­tyr in Sas­ka­toon.

In 1941 and 1945, he at­tend­ed the Roy­al Con­ser­va­tory of Mu­sic, stu­dy­ing un­der Hea­ley Will­an (com­po­si­tion), Nor­man Wilks (pi­ano), Et­to­re Maz­zo­le­ni (con­duct­ing), and John Wea­ther­seed and Fred­er­ick Sil­ves­ter (or­gan).

After a stint in the Roy­al Ca­na­di­an Air Force, Flem­ing joined the Na­tion­al Film Board of Ca­na­da in 1946, where he worked as a worked as a com­pos­er, con­duct­or and mu­sic ed­it­or. He be­came its mu­sic di­rect­or in 1958.

Fleming al­so served as mu­sic dir­ect­or for the Ot­ta­wa Bal­let Fes­ti­val (1953) and or­gan­ist-choir­mas­ter at Glebe Unit­ed Church (1954) and at St. George’s Ang­li­can Church in Sainte-Anne-de-Belle­vue, Qué­bec.

In 1970, Flem­ing moved his fa­mi­ly to Ot­ta­wa, where he taught 20th Cen­tu­ry mu­sic and Ca­na­di­an com­pos­ers at Carle­ton Uni­ver­si­ty.

In 1972, he be­came or­gan­ist-choir­mas­ter at St Mat­thi­as’ Ang­li­can Church in Ot­ta­wa (West­bo­ro).