Lys Symonette
| Lys Symonette | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Berta Elisabeth "Bertlies" Weinschenk 21 December 1914 Mainz, Hesse, Germany |
| Died | 27 November 2005 New York |
| Occupation | pianist singer musical assistant to Kurt Weill musical executive with the Kurt Weill foundation |
| Spouse(s) | Randolph Symonette (1910–1998) |
| Children | Victor 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".
Berta Elisabeth Weinschenk was born in Mainz. Max Weinschenk, her father, was a Jewish wine merchant. Her mother, born Gertrude Metzger, was a committed singer who, as a contralto, gave recitals not just in her home city but also in Frankfurt and Gotha. There was musicianship on her father's side too: Jacob Hugo Weinschenk, her uncle, was an enthusiastic 'cellist (who also wrote sonnets). Bertlies (as she quickly came to be known) grew up with her parents and her younger sister, Marianne, at the family home at "Fischtor 21" in Mainz. An early blow was the death of her father when she was eleven. Almost at once, however, Bertlies and Marianne found they had acquired a (Christian) stepfather, Dr. Willi Honheisser. She attended the "Linkenbach" private school and then, between 1924 and 1934, in Mainz. She passed her school final exams (Abitur) in 1934. She had not excelled particularly at mathematics and the sciences, but at the Senior School she had obtained top marks in singing and shown herself to be more than competent as a pianist. Her exam results in 1934 would, under other circumstances, have opened the way to university level education, but it was at this time still unusual for girls to attend university and the times were, in any case, malign. Nevertheless, at some point she was taught by Lothar Windsperger at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz, and she briefly moved to Berlin to embark on a period as a music student, studying both the piano and singing.
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