When I met Paul the first time in a voice workshop in Cologne/Germany it became soon evident to me that here was someone who was able to tell me things that I needed to hear – in a way that made it possible to me to listen and to understand. Paul became my teacher for life and later our relationship developed into a friendship that lasted until the end. Thank you, Paul for your love, your generosity and for being my teacher and my friend. 

Paul as a teacher

I remember that he once said to me: All the really important things in life you cannot teach. I think he was right and his way of teaching that was in my experience always supportive and demanding at the same time, shows how much he knew his job as a teacher.

He used all his wild and demanding energies not to force you to do something he had in mind but to give you the chance to make a decision and a „vocal action“ yourself. He wasn´t interested to make you feel comfortable but to bring you in connection with yourself. Not everybody could deal with this form of teaching, but so much people who stood in front of Paul at the piano felt that they were provoked to move closer to some aspect of their self or life or voice that was waiting to be alive for so long (supported by Clara´s integrative strategies). Often a life-changing experience.

And then when you were ready to let your voice be present he enjoyed so much to sing with you. How much versions of summertime have I sang with him? And how much have I heard in a duet with Paul and somebody else? And it was always different, new and touching.

As a teacher Paul was only interested in serious issues, but he knew so well that singing with joy is one of them.

Paul watching on of the gargoils in his garden - 

made by himself                                                                                                    

Paul and Köln

When I met Paul the first time in 1995 he and Clara were already coming to Köln since a couple of years to give summer workshop at the Moving Arts,  a studio at Gottesweg at that time. Agnes, my partner in life and art, went to one of these workshops a year before me and she said afterwards to me: I guess this is something that you might like. She was right. 

I remember that I was the first of the participants entering the studio and years later Paul told me that this already has been very impressive for him. He liked being on time, not because of abstract discipline but because Roy Hart said once to him: A voice lesson (or a workshop for that matter) is a rendez-vous with someone very important - yourself. You should not be late for such a meeting. 

I had no idea what to expect from this workshop. I was not an actor or a singer but had just started to work as a radio announcer and was looking for ways to work with my voice in order to learn more about it and about how to „use“ it. I was not prepared to join a voice workshop in order to learn more about myself and my life. But this was what happened and since then I haven´t stopped really with this research of voice and life. 

I returned next summer to their workshop and Agnes and I invited the two for a dinner one evening. In the end we agreed that I will start to organize their work in Köln now, changing dates to autumn and changing studio to the Loft in Ehrenfeld, a place that Paul not only loved for as a workshops place but even more for its concerts. Once he visited a solo concert of Simon Nabatov (Paul loved piano music nearly as much as singing). Until one of the last conversations I had with him he from time to time mentioned Nabatov with appreciation. 

For a couple of years Paul and Clara came to Köln in autumn to give two workshops and I organized a group of people from Köln to travel to the Roy Hart Center in Malérargues/France every easter. I convinced at least half of the members of the choir I attended at that time to do a workshop - including the conductor! And slowly from all the workshop participants a group of people emerged who committed themselves to a serious research into the human voice. This was the beginning of our association stimmfeld e.V. and the voice performance ensemble KörperSchafftKlang.

Paul and La Mèmoire

In the first years of the new millennium Paul started to change focus of his activities with and for the voice. Although he never stopped being a teacher he slowly retired from giving workshops and individual singing lessons. 

At the same time he and Clara began to work with the archival material from Alfred Wolfsohn in London, Roy Hart and the Roy Hart Theatre: writings, letters, recordings (most of them still on old audiotapes), photos and a few videos.  These things were partly hidden since ages in some very obscure places at Malérargues. Paul and Clara were the pioneers in creating what is now known as “La mèmoire”, the archives of the Roy Hart Center. Paul started to produce CDs with the audio material and in some productions I was involved because I could help him with the German parts, mainly in the CDs about Alfred Wolfsohn´s work with his students and in the CD “Roy Hart in German” that shows material of Roy´s collaboration with German author Paul Pörtner. 

     „What is normal?“  Paul Silber

Paul the singer

Another new and very important aspect that entered Paul´s life was that he started to give concerts in which he sang his beloved Blues and Standards, accompanied by a pianist. First with his great friend and colleague  Jonathan Hart, then for a while with different musicians before he and Saso Vollmaier found each other. More on that story at the webpage for Paul for the Roy Hart Center.

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In Köln Paul worked with the pianist Bernd Kaftan and they made some beautiful recordings in the “Loft”, the concert hall were Paul and Clara also used to give their workshops. 

Paul singing  - with Bernd Kaftan piano

Loft/Köln 8th Oct. 2010

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Paul speaking during a concert at the Loft in Köln