Bessie Mecklem Hackenberger (19 April 1876 – 5 June 1942) was one of the earliest American-born saxophone soloists. In her teens, she was a student of Edward A. Lefebre (1835–1911), pre-eminent saxophonist of the nineteenth century and soloist with Gilmore and Sousa's bands. During the 1890s, when female woodwind and brass players were uncommon, she performed extensively throughout the northeastern United States with her father, harpist Henry Clay Mecklem (1841–1915). The pair appeared in a wide variety of venues popular during the Gilded Age including lyceum; YMCA and temperance organizations; meetings of fraternal societies, labor organizations, and civic groups; benefit concerts; solos with professional wind bands; and amusement parks. Mecklem recorded twelve wax phonograph cylinders at the Edison Laboratories on 23 April 1892. After her marriage in 1900 to Bertram Lyon Hackenberger (1871–1932), she ceased playing professionally, but continued to perform as an active participant in the Progressive-era women's club movement.
Professional performing career
Lyceum
Lyceum tours comprised the mainstay of Bessie and H. C. Mecklem's performing itinerary. A lyceum “course” consisted of a series of monthly programs for which audience members purchased a season’s subscription. Lyceum programs combined education and entertainment functions, offering “lectures by humorists, as well as dramatic readings, impersonations, concerts, magic acts, and other ‘lighter’ fare.” The Mecklems entered "the lyceum field when musicians first began to appear on its programs on a regular basis." The Mecklems were billed as a saxophone-harp duo. Henry Clay accompanied Bessie on her featured selections in addition to performing his own harp solos. They frequently shared their programs with various dramatic readers or humorists. Other musical soloists, chamber groups, or vocal ensembles were sometimes included. The duo was managed by Alonzo Foster's Star Lyceum Bureau.
The Mecklems occasionally appeared with Foster’s New York Stars during the 1891-92 season. From 1892 through 1894, the Mecklems and elocutionist Florence Russell performed as the New York Ideal Trio, sometimes billed as the New York Ideal Concert Company. On 19 May 1892, the New York Ideal Trio shared the program with five other performers in a concert presented at Toronto’s Broadway Tabernacle. A review from the Toronto Empire stated,"The duets by Miss Bessie Mecklem and her father, introducing the saxophone and harp, were of peculiar interest to the audience, the two instruments in conjunction being a genuine novelty. The young lady showed much ability and Mr. Mecklem’s harmonious work on the harp was splendidly done." The Mecklems were engaged as part of the Black Patti Concert Company on 10 May 1893, at the Strong Place Baptist Church in South Brooklyn, assisted by humorist Fred Emerson Brooks. The Mecklems’ performances as part of the Black Patti Concert Company were notable in that they resulted in a racially mixed program of performers, a rare situation at the time. The company’s featured performer, soprano Sissieretta Jones (1869-1933), became one of the most famous black musicians in America after the Civil War. Jones was known as the “Black Patti” for comparisons of her singing to that of Adelina Patti, one of the nineteenth century’s most celebrated opera stars. The Mecklems paired with Walter Pelham, “a distinguished English humorist, poet and mimic elocutionist,” for a tour of lecture courses in western New York during November 1894.
YMCA and temperance
As part of its programming, the YMCA sponsored lecture and entertainment courses similar to those of the lyceum. Because the audience for YMCA lecture courses comprised mostly young men, as opposed to a more heterogeneous composition in the lyceum, these events tended to have a more consistently moralistic, or motivational, emphasis. YMCA engagements made up the largest portion of the Mecklems’ documented bookings.