An e mail from an old friend of mine since med student days

On the New Year's Day, I have received an e mail for the New Year Greeting from an old friend of mine, Ms. U. 

I have first known her more than 40 years ago. It was at a backstage of a concert hall when we, the university orchestra, have finished a concert. It was the only opportunity when I played the role of the cello top. A violinist, Ms. K, took her there. They have proposed to me to play a piano trio. Both of them were students of music education at a famous women's university. Both of them were freshmen of the university which has been the cooperative school for orchestral activity with our mother school. I was more than happy to have had such a proposal from such not only lovely but also proficient musicians like them. It was the Archduke trio by Beethoven we have played. Apparently, both of them, who would be professional musicians in the future, were much more skillful at their instrument than me with cello. That was why I have enjoyed playing with them. I still remember like events yesterday that we have practiced at the old rehearsal room of the university or even at its big hall. In half a year or so, we have finished all the movements of that trio. Ms. U has performed grand music with absolutely reliable technique. 

This photo was taken at a summer camp of the orchestra. Ms. U, the person in the middle of the photo, has joined the orchestra for a year as a cellist. She quit the club in order to concentrate on piano then. What lovely girls!

Ms. U used to visit us at the dorm for the residents at a med school where I and my wife served residency. She went for a postgraduate school majoring in piano performance. Later, she went to the US with her husband, a medical researcher, and studied further piano at a university there. It seemed she had worked as an accompanying pianist for the other musicians as well as a practice pianist for the Saito Kinen orchestra chorus organized by Seiji Ozawa.

It has been for more than a couple of decades we talked to play each other in some occasion only in the New Year's greeting cards. Both of us have been too busy and involved too much in own work and family affairs.

When I started my own practice and recalled playing cello for a hobby in late '90s, it was her name that brought up in my mind as a pianist. I would like to play chamber music with her. At my request to play something together, she kindly accepted it and came to see me in Tokyo. She looked all the same as in the student days. We have played the 1st movement of Mendelssohn's 1st piano trio for the first time. The violinist was a younger friend of ours, an alumni of the med university. For the next few years, we have played various chamber music together. One day, we have gathered with other players in Nagano for chamber ensemble. A lot of pieces were performed in that event. Drinking and talking a lot as well. In the end, we have played the famous d minor piano concerto by Mozart in chamber music arrangement, of course, with her as the soloist. I could not forget her playing really demonish cadenza for the 1st movement. Her son, aged around 11 or 12 years, was beside me as a cellist then.   

This photo was taken at a small concert we played that Mendelssohn's trio. Twenty three years have passed!

Several years again have elapsed without any contact with her. I have received an invitation to her concert of Schubert's Winterreise with a baritone singer. I and my wife have gone to listen to them. It was 2010 a year before the big earthquake. A memorable concert. Her piano sounded mellowly beautiful like water droplets on leaves. It seemed she was busy talking to the audience. We went back home without greeting her. On the way, she has noticed our visit and has given me an e mail for gratitude. This piece was, as she said, a music which her father had loved most.

Again, there has been a long interval without any correspondence etc with her. And the New Year's greeting e mail has broken that long absence. You may understand how pleased I was to have it. She is still teaching at a college while caring for her old parents. I have almost quit playing cello with a right arm issue. We won't have any chance to play together. I am still so glad to have her as a friend since student days.