Paul Krzywicki '61

Paul Krzywicki '61 has had an amazing musical career, including 33 years as the tubist for the Philadelphia Orchestra and nearly 50 years as a professor at the Curtis Institute. However, none of this would have been possible without the influence of Fr. William Pichla, SJ, the moderator of the marching band at St. Joseph’s Prep, who spotted Krzywicki’s musical ability. Ironically, it was a poor grade on a German test that led to Krzywicki joining the band.

 

“Fr. Pichla had a rule that anyone who got a bad grade on a German test had to go to the band room and help polish the brass instruments,” Krzywicki says. “One day, I was in there, and he really pushed me to join the band. I wasn’t able to turn him down.”

Krzywicki first thought that he might play the trombone, but he didn’t mesh well with the person who taught the instrument. Next, he turned to the sousaphone, which was taught by Leo Romano. “I liked it right away, right when he put the instrument around my head,” Krzywicki remembers. “Because of the brief time I had spent on the trombone, I was already able to embouchure, which is the formation of the mouth which produces the buzzing sounds on the instrument. I could buzz and he was overjoyed that I could play the notes. He was incredibly encouraging, and I thought the sound was pretty cool, so I stayed with it.”

After a few months, Romano had Krzywicki playing in the Mummers Parade and then in some Italian bands. These experiences led to Krzywicki wanting to pursue the instrument in college and beyond. “The chance of me playing the tuba without Fr. Pichla and Leo’s guidance was virtually nil; no chance whatsoever,” he says. “Taking up the tuba with the kind of sincerity I had would probably not have happened without Leo Romano. The circumstances all came together.”

These circumstances guided Krzywicki to his next step in formal education, when he attended Catholic University in Washington, DC. “To my family’s dismay, I signed up for music,” he says. “The dean of the music school became a very dear friend and an incredible mentor to me and he convinced my family.”

Krzywicki became custodian of the music building, which gave him access to the building at any time. Early each morning, he would go practice. He also started playing in jazz clubs with a pianist and a drummer to make extra money. “I was the only tuba player that the school had ever had and they did everything they could to mentor me,” he says, remarking that one of his mentors came from the National Symphony in Washington and another was William Bell, the premier player and teacher of the tuba in America during the first half of the 20th century who played with the New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony with Arturo Toscanini. Bell taught at Indiana University, where Krzywcki would later receive a special performer’s certificate and a master’s degree. After a three-year stint with the US Military Academy Band and a few summers at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, he began working in Boston and Buffalo before landing back in his hometown of Philadelphia in 1972.

In a 30-plus year career with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Krzywicki performed more than 4,000 concerts, including two or more annual trips abroad to Europe and Asia. These journeys include the historic trip that the Orchestra took with President Richard Nixon to China as President Nixon worked to open relations with the country. “That was a very big deal,” Krzywicki remembers. 

Krzywicki has incredibly fond memories of his time with the Orchestra. “Playing with one of the greatest orchestras in the world is an incredible experience. I have so much joy and pride for what I’ve been able to accomplish,” he says. “We played in the world’s greatest concert halls with the greatest musicians. There were so many fantastic moments.”

His favorite tours were in Europe. “Europe is the birthplace of classical music and playing in all of the European capitals was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had,” he says. Krzywicki is the grandson of Polish immigrants and especially appreciated the chance to play in Warsaw. “That was really exciting to me,” he says. “I even printed out pages of a walking tour for the other musicians.”

 

His Polish roots led him to write a book, From Paderewski to Penderecki: The Polish Musician in Philadelphia, which the Chestnut Hill Local described as “a virtual encyclopedia with an astonishing 170 brief biographies intermingled with relevant historical information about this collection of meritorious performers.” He recently finished another work, History of the Tubist in Philadelphia, that he hopes to publish.

At the same time, Krzywicki also continues his work at the Curtis Institute. He uses his Philadelphia Orchestra connections to bring in former colleagues to work with his students. “I like continuing to be connected with the Orchestra,” he says.

Krzywicki is one of four siblings, all of whom became professional musicians (one brother is retiring as a professor at Temple University, another just retired from the US Air Force Band in Washington, and his sister taught music in Boston). All of this is just two generations away from Polish immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania’s coal region. “There was no musical background to any of these people that we knew of,” he says, remarking that both of his parents played the piano. “It really is a great American story.”

Meanwhile, he and his wife Joan have written their own amazing story. They have lived in the same house in Wyndmoor since 1973 and have two children and five grandchildren. And though Krzywicki no longer plays (“Age takes its toll. I could play something but I don’t want to hear it!”), music continues to be a major part of his life. “One of the wonderful things is I go to concerts quite often and interact with music quite frequently,” he says.