Freiburg’s Jörg Kuenzer has been regularly playing short concerts in front of the fountain at Holzmarkt since November 2020. Photo: Enya Steinbrecher
Jörg Kuenzer has been playing the trumpet since he was eleven years old. In his career as a trumpet player, he has not only made a name for himself in Freiburg, as the 68-year-old has traveled around a lot. He gained great fame from 2020 as the “Corona Trumpeter”.
It is the 770th vigil that Jörg Kuenzer is playing on this day: The trumpeter has been playing a short concert every Wednesday at 11:11 a.m. in front of the fountain at his wife Susanne Schneider-Kuenzer’s chocolaterie on Holzmarkt since November 13, 2020. He usually plays between five and six pieces, a total of 15 to 20 minutes.
He plays whatever the wind and weather – if it rains without music, then he improvises. He regularly has spectators: “The maximum was 14, usually there are one to three,” says Kuenzer.
In addition to passers-by, there are also old faces, because Kuenzer has long since made a name for himself as a “Corona trumpeter”. Acquaintances and friends are among the listeners, as are regular guests of the Kirschbaumdeck Music Days – an event format that Kuenzer himself initiated and which takes place on the balcony of his home.
At the age of 12 he was already playing in the music class at the Freiburg University of Music. He later studied music therapy in Aachen and Cologne and eventually founded the Jak artist agency. From 1981 to 1984 he was a teaching trumpet player at the PH. He also completed training as an insurance specialist and has a degree in economics – to prove to his parents that he would not die prematurely due to starvation, says Kuenzer.
It was his father who wanted him to learn to play the trumpet. He had no idea how much fun this would be for the offspring. “We always wanted you to play the trumpet, but not so much!” his father often said later, says Kuenzer.
“After 5,000 tunes, I’m a fan of all genres of music.”
Jörg Kuenzer, trumpeter
Music has accompanied Kuenzer his entire life: “Melodies are the most important thing in life,” he says. The now 68-year-old doesn’t just play the trumpet: he owns around 20 instruments, including unusual ones such as water buffalo horns and a mutton horn, as well as an organ and several accordions – because before Kuenzer started playing the trumpet, he played the accordion for three years.
Kuenzer is also known beyond Freiburg: “I’ve gotten around a lot,” said the Freiburg resident. Among other things, he appeared on stage in New York and also played the trumpet in Freiburg’s sister city, Madison. Through his agency, he accompanied Markus Stockhausen on his travels for eleven years – “one of the world’s best trumpeters,” says Kuenzer, from whom he also learned a lot.
Through his Corona concerts, only a few of which were canceled, he has acquired an outstanding repertoire of pieces: He has played around 5,000 pieces of music over the years. He avoids repetition. “After 5,000 melodies, I’m a fan of all genres of music,” says Kuenzer.
However, his focus is on classical music. The clear favorite: Johann Sebastian Bach, followed by Georg Philipp Telemann and Georg Friedrich Handel. However, his favorite artists also include Reinhard Mey, Howard Carpendale, Udo Jürgens and Udo Lindenberg.
