Lys Symonette

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".

Life Provenance and early years 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, the Höhere Mädchenschule (senior girls' school) 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. After graduating, during the early 1940s she performed regularly in clubs across the country as part of the two-piano combo "Yola and Lisa, the Mexican sisters" with Alberta Masiello,

Kurt Weill and Randolph Symonette It was Maurice Abravanel who recommended her to Kurt Weill as a rehearsal pianist for his new 1945 Broadway musical, The Firebrand of Florence. Abravanel was the conductor for the original production. As she would later laconically recall, Abravenal "suspected that [she] might be able to do the job, having been both a voice and piano major at the Curtis ...". Despite participating in stage performances, it appears that her more crucial contribution quickly became as a répétiteuse and as a coach for the singers. They returned to New York in March 1950: when Lys Symonette tried to telephone him that she was back, the telephone was answered by a maid who told her that "Mr Weill" was in hospital. He died a few days later.

As the 1970s progressed the amount of time spent supporting Lotte Lenya increased. Additionally, in 1974 Lys Symonette returned to the Curtis Institute, now as a voice coach. During the decade she collaborated on several new Weill productions and engaged in other projects which involved the publication and, frequently, the performance of hitherto unknown Kurt Weill songs.

Lys Symonette suffered a fatal heart attack at Windsor, New York, less than a month before what would have been her ninety-first birthday.