Lys Symonette

Lys Symonette
Born
Berta Elisabeth "Bertlies" Weinschenk

21 December 1914
Mainz, Hesse, Germany
Died27 November 2005
New York, United States
Occupation(s)pianist
singer
musical assistant to Kurt Weill
musical executive with the Kurt Weill foundation
SpouseRandolph Symonette (1910–1998)
ChildrenVictor C. Symonette (conductor)
Parent(s)Max Weinschenk
Gertrude Metzger

Bertlies "Lys" Symonette (born Berta Weinschenk: 21 December 1914 – 27 November 2005) was a German-American pianist, chorus singer and musical stage performer. In 1945 she took a job as rehearsal pianist, coach, understudy or multi-tasking "swing-girl" for The Firebrand of Florence, a Kurt Weill musical making its Broadway debut. This proved to be the start of a new career as Weill's musical assistant: from that point a principal focus of her professional life was on the composer and, more particularly after his early death in 1950, the career of his widow, the stage performer Lotte Lenya. When Lenya died, in 1981, Lys Symonette was appointed vice-president of the Kurt Weill Foundation, also serving as its "musical executive". When she died her friend and frequent collaborator, Prof. Kim H. Kowalke, published an affectionate tribute in which he described her as "the last and irreplaceable link to the inner artistic circle of Weill and Lenya".[1][2][3]

  1. ^ Isabel Herzfeld (29 February 2000). "Walhall am Broadway: Eine Begegnung mit Lys Symonette, der amtierenden Präsidentin der amerikanischen Kurt-Weill-Foundation". Der Tagesspiegel Online. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  2. ^ Kim H. Kowalke. "Lys Symonette (1914-2005)". Last Artistic Link to Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya dies at age 90. Kurt Weill Foundation, New York City. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  3. ^ Kurt Weill; Lotte lenya; Lys Symonette (editor-compiler and translator); Kim H. Kowalke (editor-compiler and translator) (November 1997). Afterwords. University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles. pp. 497–505. ISBN 978-0-520-21240-4. {{cite book}}: |author3= has generic name (help); |work= ignored (help)