by Helmut Loos
On 19 September 2009, the renowned composer Günter Neubert was elected president of the Grieg-Begegnungsstätte (e. V.). As successor to founding president Prof. Dr. Hella Brock, another outstanding figure of Leipzig's musical life had been found to preserve the memory of Edvard Grieg in Leipzig, who was in a sense an adopted Leipziger. At Talstrasse 10 he had found a permanent home with Max Abraham, the owner of the C. F. Peters music publishing house, with whom he had signed a general contract.
Günter Neubert was able to set a striking sign right with his election, for following the meeting, Lord Mayor Burkhard Jung unveiled the bronze bust of Edvard Grieg, donated by the honorary conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Prof. Dr. Herbert Blomstedt, in the garden of the meeting place. In the salon of the meeting place, porcelain busts of Grieg (2010), Henri Hinrichsen (2011) and Max Abraham (2013) followed. Günter Neubert himself occasionally referred to himself as the "bust president". In doing so he set important signs not only with regard to the Norwegian composer, but above all also with regard to the Jewish publishing family, whose tragic family history in the times of dictatorships must be commemorated. The amicable settlement of unresolved ownership questions between the publishing family and the City of Leipzig was able to be celebrated at the meeting place with the participation of high-ranking representatives of the Hinrichsen family and the City of Leipzig.
Through his personal commitment, Günter Neubert finally achieved that the City of Leipzig provided institutional funding for the meeting place and that the position of a museum staff member could be established. Funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy and Verbundnetz Gas AG, as well as the cultural offerings of the meeting place, continued steadily throughout: concerts, talks, trips such as to the Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen, visits such as that of Herbert Blomstedt, the ladies' breakfast of the Royal Norwegian Honorary Consulate, or the Norwegian lessons in the association's rooms. The concerts in particular should be highlighted; they featured much, but by no means exclusively, music by Grieg and, with numerous Norwegian musicians, attained an overall very high standard.
Effective as a composer far beyond the borders of Leipzig, Günter Neubert has a very good network, which he used in the association not to his personal advantage but for the benefit of the meeting place. His own music was heard at the meeting place on special, personal occasions. So too this year, on his 85th birthday, to thank our former president warmly for his wonderful achievements in this important phase of the association's history.