Today I will write to you about one of those important people who help music flourish. On 2026-01-22, a benefactor of musical life, Dr Peter Hanser Strecker, passed away. His name probably doesn’t mean much to most people. Yet, he was the man to whom we owe a great deal, as from the helm of Schott music publishers, he managed to print, distribute, and disseminate thousands of composers’ works, which would not have been presented and performed for the public without his care.

Many times, we overlook the value of publishers, whether for books or sheet music, simply because their work is considered a given. But it isn’t. It is precisely these publishers who identify the new, the different, and spread it to the world, who see talent where others do not.

Because I happened to have personal contact with him, as he was Mikis Theodorakis’s publisher, he left me with the best impressions. Precise in detail but also an ardent supporter of new music and technologies, he readily accepted the proposal to fund the digitization of the exhibition “My Galaxy: Mikis Theodorakis” (you can see it here https://mmb.org.gr/el/o-galaxias-moy-mikis-theodorakis) because he believed it deserved to remain available. I had the good fortune to collaborate with him recently as well, when he wrote the preface for the publication “Mikis Theodorakis 100” by Melissa Publications, which I co-edited with my colleague Valia Vraka, and I was struck by the vigor of his writing and the enthusiasm his text exuded.

He was a noble man who loved music deeply without exaggeration, and the new generations owe him a lot for the education and opportunities he provided them through Schott music publishers. After all, what can a creator achieve without an open-minded publisher ready to see beyond the lines and black marks on paper (i.e., the notes…)? Probably not much.

It was a joy and an honor to have known him, and I wanted to put a few words on digital paper for someone who did so much for musical life on the planet, so that there is something in Greek to commemorate his passing from this world, as it is a great loss. I wish all music publishers were as generous as Peter Hanser Strecker.