I met him backstage in the Concertgebouw: the young Israeli cellist Gabi Lipkind. He was still sweating from the recital and my hands were black from the drawing. I showed him the sketches wich I just made inspired by his passionate music. He was very excited about my work and said 'Let's keep in touch'. Years later my drawing was on the cover of his cd 'cello miniatures and folkores". Now he was playing at a classical music festival and he invited me to come to attend the rehearsals.

There I met the Meritis Ensemble ('Meritis' is the nickname of Schubert) from Germany who were in Holland to follow masterclasse. They came from Mannheim which happens to be my birthplace. This young talented people were making a webstie to promote their ensemble. I was asked to make some graphic work for this site. They were very kind to me, but I was not sure if i could fullfill their high expectatons after Gabi's recommendations. In a small sweaty room I attented their rehearsals of Bartok third string quartet. We were both working hard, both struggling with our occupations. The music was not easy to play (nor to listen to) and also It was hard to get a quartet well on paper. Four is not a good number. So a trio would be better for drawing. The problem with rehearsals is that musicians stop from time to time to discuss the playing, which takes me out of my ' trance' of drawing. Fortunately they did a long concert in the evening with music from Mozart and Dvorak and i made some inspired drawings. At the end of the evening we left as friends. I almost felt that i played with them as a fifth member of their ensemble.

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