Marek Żebrowski: My German adventure

From that time onwards, a recurring pattern on my calendar of summertime tours of Germany took shape. As soon as my academic obligations in Boston ended in early June, I would pack my bags, bring my scores and concert clothing, and fly out to spend several weeks in Europe. Upon arriving in Frankfurt I would rent a car and drive to Marburg – first over the autobahn and then over smaller local roads leading to Sindersfeld that became my base of operations for the duration of each of my tours.

Through Waldemar’s music connections in Trier, I was invited to perform there as well as in Saarbrücken and in nearby town of Lebach. In Saarbrücken I met another music enthusiast and a devoted fan of pianists and piano music, Raphael Kreutzer, who also volunteered to help with my engagements in Saarland and later assisted Joachim with some of my concert organization. In that area of Germany I also gave several chamber music concerts with a cellist from Kassel, Claudia Schwarze and Carola Nasdala, a violinist from the former East Germany. We called ourselves the “Ost-West Trio” and performed at the Schloss Saarbrücken, Trier, and in various other concert venues throughout the State of Hesse. 

Since Joachim was a respected teacher in and around Marburg, my circle of German friends in the fields of music and art kept steadily expanding. Wolfgang Jungraithmayr, a talented violinist and pianist who eventually settled on a career in the medical field as a thoracic surgeon, was one of them. I remember reading through Beethoven’s Sonatas for violin and piano with Wolfgang, as well as visiting his parents’ house on a quiet and leafy street in Marburg. Many years later, when Wolfgang was a resident surgeon in one of the leading hospitals in southern Germany, I visited him and even had a chance to observe him in the operating theatre. He also came to visit me in Boston and on that occasion we spent one Thanksgiving holiday with my family friends in Portland, Maine. 

Except for one concert I gave at Munich’s Gasteig, my trips to this elegant capital of Bavaria were usually purely private and personal – whenever I was in southern Germany, I stopped for a few days in Munich to see my old friend from Harvard, Stanisław Kadziewicz, who worked for Radio Free Europe there. 

As I kept driving all across Germany to rehearsals and concerts, I would always budget whatever time I could in Sindersfeld, spend a few days with Joachim, get some rest, and put in many hours of piano practice on his imposing Grotrian Steinweg grand. My reward would invariably by an evening chat with Joachim and a long walk with his dog, Susie, after supper. One summer, after my American cousin, Marie, unexpectedly lost her husband to a heart attack, Joachim graciously invited Marie and her two daughters to spend a few weeks in his Sindersfeld house and do some sightseeing with me in-between concerts. It was a beautiful experience for two of Marie’s very young daughters and, after a week or two with Joachim I was happy to drive them all the way to Calais, where they boarded a ferry to England before returning to their New Jersey home.