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Musician. Cultural Ambassador. Fulbrighter.

Guillermo Martinez ’88 Made Music and Discovered the Meaning of Freedom In a Divided Germany

By Texas Christian University

December 8^th, 2021

A Prelude

Guillermo Martinez’s ’88 (M.M. ’91) musical abilities have been a driving force throughout his life. He started playing piano at age five, took organ lessons during high school and ultimately entered college at Sam Houston State University as a piano major in the mid-80s.

That’s where he met organ teacher Sherryl (Sherry) Smith Pond ’79 (M.M. ’81), who encouraged Martinez to transfer to TCU to study with her former teacher Emmet G. Smith ’54 (D.M. ’12 Hon.), an ardent supporter of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and a former Fulbrighter himself.

During registration at TCU, Smith asked Martinez if he was interested in applying for a foreign scholarship like the Fulbright.

“I replied, ‘Yes, that’s kind of why I came to TCU,’” said Martinez. “He told me to choose a language to study, so I chose German because I was always interested in Germany.”

A Fulbright Lineage

Notably, Martinez is one of 13 former TCU organ students who participated in Fulbright or other foreign scholarship programs under Smith's guidance. Now an emeritus professor of organ and church music, Smith has helped more students earn prestigious international scholarships than any other organ teacher in the country.

“Emmet mentored all of his students to be well-rounded and prepared for cultural exchanges—large or small,” said Martinez. “He challenged us musically and academically so that when we went abroad, we would represent ourselves, our school, our art and our country well.”

Martinez studied organ in West Germany, also known as the Federal Republic of Germany, which was an independent country until the German reunification in 1990. His former organ teacher, Sherry Smith Pond, studied there before him. And before that, Sherry's high school organ teacher, Allen Pote ’66 (also a former student of Emmet's) traveled to Belgium as a Fulbrighter in the 60s. Emmet himself was a Fulbrighter in France back in 1955.

“It’s an honor and privilege to be a part of this lineage,” Martinez said.

Martinez (far left) is one of 13 former TCU organ students who, under Smith’s (far right) guidance, participated in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program or other prestigious foreign scholarship programs. Smith Pond and Pote (center) are two others.

Cultural Exchange

When Martinez embarked on his Fulbright year in West Germany in 1988, the country was—quite literally—divided. He and his Fulbright colleagues once visited East Berlin by passing through the Berlin Wall, which physically and politically separated the west from the communist east during the Cold War.

“It was still a divided city, and Germany was still a divided country,” remembered Martinez. “My friend Joe and I went through Checkpoint Charlie together, waiting for the armed guards to let us in to pass. It was a very sobering experience. My impression of East Berlin was that everyone was essentially forced into a state of simply being content with the lives into which they were born.”

A view from the Berlin Wall shows a heavily guarded East Berlin, which remained under Communist control until the wall famously fell in 1989.

The Berlin Sculpture, located on the city's famous Kurfürstendamm Strasse avenue, symbolizes West and Easy Germany: close, but never connecting.

Recognizing Freedom

Martinez recalled the time he met the organist Vladimir Koshuba, from Kiev, in Soviet Ukraine, who was in West Germany to perform.

“It took a lot to get Koshuba out of the Eastern Bloc to come play in an organ festival,” said Martinez. “He was extremely limited in where he could go and what he could do.”

To support his fellow musician, Martinez wanted to gift him copies of American music since Koshuba wasn’t able to source it under communist rule. But Koshuba did not appear at his final concert and ran late to catch his train back to Kiev.

"We thought he was going to defect from Soviet control," Martinez remembered. "Just six minutes before his train was about to leave, he showed up. He just wanted to savor freedom as long as he could.

"Because the train was traveling through the Eastern Bloc, there were armed guards at every entrance of the train cars.

That was the moment I realized the only difference between us and how we could share our music was where we were born.

"I realized that I have the freedom to do what I want with my music and with my education because I was born in the United States. He could not experience that because he was born in Kiev."

A German Mentor

Martinez lived in Düsseldorf, where he studied organ with Johannes Geffert at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule. He practiced daily, learned literature and performed recitals around the region.

“Like Professor Smith, my teacher in Germany, Johannes Geffert, provided me the best instruction and musical experiences,” said Martinez. “He also wanted me to experience German and European culture.”

Around the winter holidays, Martinez was hesitant to cancel a lesson with Geffert to attend the famous Christkindlmarkt (a German Christmas market) in Nuremberg. “But he practically insisted that I do so,” he happily recalled.

Classical Culture

On his recital trips and travel throughout Europe, Martinez noted society’s deep and historic appreciation for classical music and the fine arts—a marked contrast from American audiences.

“The arts and classical music are so highly appreciated in Europe because that’s where the tradition was born,” said Martinez. “Popular music wins in the States. Yes, we have orchestras and opera companies, but they don’t garner the same reverence as in Europe.”

For example, Martinez noted that many German cities, even those with smaller populations, have their own opera houses and orchestras.

“There is a street in Vienna that is essentially the classical musicians’ Hollywood Walk of Fame,” said Martinez. “You don’t have pop stars. You have classical musicians—Brahms, Schumann, Wagner, Barenboim, Karajan. It’s a very different culture.”

Martinez plays the organ as part of his daily practice at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule during his Fulbright year in Germany.

A Texan Abroad

Martinez saw it as one of his duties to be a cultural representative of his home state and country. “I wasn't just going to study organ and music,” he said. “I was going to be a representative of the United States, and I felt I should know what’s going on in my country and share that with others.”

Since the television show “Dallas” was popular at the time, Martinez would often tell those he met not that he was an American, but that he was a Texan.

“Germans characterized Texas as cowboy boots and everyone riding a horse,” remembered Martinez. “They would ask, ‘Do you ride horses to school? Do you eat steak every day? Who shot J.R.?’”

Another cultural touchpoint that Germans frequently often brought up in conversation: McDonald’s. “I was always saddened that they saw American culture as McDonald’s.”

To do his part to expose Germans and other students to the culture of his home country, Martinez decided to host hamburger nights in his dorm to make friends.

“I was the American guy making hamburgers for everyone. That’s how I got to know them better—being creative in how I reached out to them,” said Martinez.

Martinez (second from right) sets sail on the north coast of Germany outside of Kiel with his fellow Fulbrighters. While in Kiel, the group took a German language course.

Coming Full Circle

After returning to the United States and completing his master’s degree, Martinez unexpectedly found himself in the classroom again—this time as a faculty member.

He has worked an instructor of theory, class piano and piano pedagogy in the TCU School of Music since 1991, while still serving as a church organist position on the side.

“If I had never had my Fulbright experience, I never would have thought about teaching. There is not enough time to talk about how it has influenced my career,” said Martinez. “It’s in teaching that I can give back and encourage my students to be curious about music and the world.”

Martinez, who often shares his travel experiences in class, says he has visited Germany many times since his Fulbright year, including a trip to Berlin in 2009 near the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Like his mentor, Professor Emeritus Smith, Martinez highly encourages his students to consider opportunities like Fulbright so that they, too, can learn and teach new things.

“Emmet laid it out for us. He molded and mentored us because he wanted us to be curious and cultured,” said Martinez. “And now I love when I can share my Fulbright experience with my students."

My Fulbright year allowed me to seek and challenge my own curiosities. I wish the same for my students.

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