Early Menories of Kansas City

As a pianist of many years standing, I have seen a lot come and go on the classical scene. Imagine...one of my early teachers studied with Clara Schumann and was a friend of Johannes Brahms. Carl Friedberg was born in Bingen am Rhine, Germany, in 1872, and studied with Frau Schumann in her last years. Carl made his debut under Gustav Mahler and the Vienna Philharmonic in 1900, and came to the USA originally as accompanist for Fritz Kreisler, one of the all time great violinists. He later became a principal teacher at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York City, which later became the Julliard School

I met Carl Friedberg in Kansas City in 1950. My family had moved there from Birmingham, Alabama, and I was lucky to find a very fine piano teacher named Mary Newitt Dawson. She took me to a master class at the University of Kansas City conducted by Mr.Friedberg. It was held in a beautiful drawing room in the mansion that Colonel William Rockhill Nelson had built overlooking the Kansas City skyline, and the famous museum that bears his name, the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, one of the finest in the world.

Among the many pianists in the room that day were Malcolm Frager, who had come over from St.Louis, Albertine Baumgartner (now Votapek) Joanne Baker, Gerald Kemner and Mary Weaver, the most famous piano teacher in Kansas City in that era. I remember my teacher introducing me to Mr.Friedberg, and the comment he made, saying I had a remarkable teacher and to consider myself very lucky.

A master class like this didn't happen by chance. Evaline Hartley was a remarkable voice teacher at KCU who had studied in Germany as a young lady (with the great Julia Culp, no less), and she was a friend of Mack Harrell, a leading baritone at the Met and a faculty member at Julliard. (Yes, he was the father of Lynn Harrell, one of our best cellists today). She had persuaded KCU to bring him, his accompanist Conrad Bos, and Mr. Friedberg to town for a two week mastercourse. The course ran for a number of summers immediately after the Second World War.

I didn't play that summer, and when the classes were no longer held, Mr.Friedberg continued to come to Kansas City until he died in 1955. It was during this period that I had many lessons with him, learning the Schumann Concerto in A Minor, the Schumann "Carnaval", the Franck "Variations Symphoniques" and the Chopin "Barcarolle". There were also numerous Preludes of Debussy and other shorter works we studied together. In a later post I will write about our lessons and the impact they still have on me today.