There were times when I thought of moving to Poland. But my wife, a lawyer from Kharkov, brought up in the Soviet spirit and convinced that the Soviet Union was the most beautiful country in the world, didn’t want to hear a word of it. Now my daughter wants me to live with them in Germany. And I feel I’m needed here. In the nineties I started travelling to Poland with the Odrodzenie (Rebirth) children’s choir. It was founded in 1990 and that year we regained our parish church of St. Bartholomew. I taught children Polish Christmas carols. I took a microphone from the university, and a violin. And for the first time in fifty years a Polish Christmas carol sounded here in Drohobych during the Midnight Mass.
[Zofia Fabjanowska-Micyk, Alfred Schreyer from Drohobych Playing, Gazeta Wyborcza, 20th May, 2011]
After he retired the artist played the violin and sang Yiddish songs and Polish pre-war tangos at occasional concerts. He kept the memory of his teacher alive by regularly participating in the Bruno Schulz Festival in Drohobych, among other activities.
Music is my life! It saved me from death. [...] I am a qualified conductor and lecturer of theoretical subjects, but my hobby is singing and playing the violin. Now I can sing anything, and even travel around Europe with my trio which is called the Schreyer Trio. The trio has already visited several capitals, toured in Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, and London. Travelling and singing allow me to continue enjoying life. [Music Saved Me from Death, an interview with Alfred Schreyer by Irena Subbotej, Kurier Galicyjski, 17-30th May, 2013]
A Guardian of Memory
As a guardian of the memory of Bruno Schulz, Alfred Schreyer was often visited by artists from all over the world, but mainly Poland. He always had time for Schulz. Among his guests were Ryszard Kapuściński and Allan Starski.
Schulz’s pupil inspired the documentary Alfred Schreyer from Drohobych (2010), directed by Martin Giżycki. In addition, he played a witness of past times and a guide in his hometown, where the Polish poet Kazimierz Wierzyński was also born, in the film Gdzież jesteście przyjaciele moi… (Where Are You, My Friends…, 1995), directed by Mariusz Kobzdej. Characters associated with the local school play a significant role in the story – Professor Bernard Mantel, Professor Michał Einleger, Mścisław Mściwujski, who wrote about the history of the city of Drohobych, Józefina Szelińska, and, of course, Bruno Schulz.
It is now time to introduce the members of the Schreyer Trio individually:
Alfred Schreyer – violin and vocals.
Tadeusz Serwatko – accordion. Jew rescued from the Holocaust thanks to Ms Serwatkowa. Speaks excellent Polish. Spent almost all his adult life as a musician on a Soviet liner. Circumnavigated the world.
Lowa Łobanow – piano. Boiler-house worker. The only person in Drohobych to know Hebrew.
They played at the International Bruno Schulz Festival in Drohobych and the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, Lublin, and Kazimierz Dolny. The concert of Alfred Schreyer and his musicians at the Polish Theatre in Warsaw in May 2011 was an extraordinary event. Touched by their music, the audience in Berlin bought the trio a new accordion.
During the exhibition Towards Schulz in Lviv in 2005, his pupil from Drohobycz met Grzegorz Gauden, the current president of the Chamber of Books. When Alfred Schreyer’s health deteriorated significantly, Gauden arranged medical treatment for him in Poland. The musician began to show signs of improvement in the hospital in Warsaw. Ultimately, however, his exhausted body lost the battle against the disease.
In 2012, Alfred Schreyer was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
Author: Janusz R. Kowalczyk with the help of Iryna Kołodijczyk, transl. Bozhana Nikolova April 2015