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sai-national.org • WINTER 2018 • PAN PIPES 21 FOR MORE INFORMATION visit schumannzwickau.de professional career (as pianist, composer, editor, and teacher). I feel a special connection to her because she was the teacher of my brother's piano teacher, Dr. Carl Friedberg. My very favorite room in the museum, the roped-off Memorial Room, is the room in which Schumann was born and, according to the museum's website, has "instruments and furniture from the estate of Robert and Clara Schumann, including Schumann's desk with his personal journals and musical scores along with busts and portraits placed here by him of his idols Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Frederic Handel and Ludwig van Beethoven." Imagine my awe standing only a few feet away from the grand piano on which Clara performed her first concert! e top level of the museum is very bright because of the glass ceiling. In a large cabinet are shelves full of Schumann memorabilia, such as figurines, postage stamps, little busts, cups, books, and medallions in leather cases. On the walls are blue plaques listing winners of the Schumann Competitions (for singers and pianists) and the performers who won the Schumann Prize at the Schumann Festivals, which began in 1847. Suspended from the ceiling are two huge poster-sized illustrated timelines with short descriptions. At the back of the large space on this level is a comfortable area for children to color and listen to Schumann's music. Giant pillows and smaller ones (imprinted with Schumann scenes) invite youngsters to stretch out and relax while their parents (perhaps) explore the museum themselves. Apparently, even at an early age, Schumann thought that one day his name would be in all the encyclopedias and that his voluminous letters would be printed. As it turns out, he was right about both predictions. Reference books include his name. In 2008, the Robert- Schumann-Haus initiated a project to publish all of the Schumann correspondence in 50 volumes. Some of the 23 volumes already completed have more than 1000 pages each. During my visit in Zwickau at the Robert-Schumann-Haus, the director stacked before me on a table four thick volumes (more than 2600 pages) of the correspondence just between Robert and his wife Clara. Clearly, history holds a special place for Robert Schumann as one of the most famous and beloved classical music composers in the world—to a greater degree than he probably ever imagined. Children's Area in Robert-Schumann-Haus in Zwickau