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.
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".
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.
Nevertheless, at some point she was taught by Lothar Windsperger at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz,[2] and she briefly moved to Berlin to embark on a period as a music student, studying both the piano and singing.
At this stage arrest and imprisonment were still, for the most part, restricted to those Jews who were politically active: nevertheless, employment and business opportunities were being systematically cut away.
In September 1933 Bertlies Weinschenk obtained an exit visa and relocated with her family, briefly, to Cologne where her sister had found a job in the garments industry.
Bertlies would later recall that on the day they left Cologne she opened the balcony window of the hotel room where she was staying and played records of music from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera – which had been banned in Germany since 1933 – for the benefit of passers-by.
[9] The story is told of one night when the "sisters" were hired to perform at a club venue precariously located at the end of a pier in Galveston: they played on through a hurricane in order to avoid foregoing their fee.
[3] After three days of "sight-reading-transposing-improvising" as she provided accompaniment for what felt like a never ending succession of auditioneers, a small man emerged, grinning, from the shadows of the auditorium: "I'd love to have you in the show.
[2] Over the next couple of decades she worked closely with Lenya as accompanist, trusted musical advisor and, at least on matters touching Kurt Weill's artistic legacy, friend and mentor.
Preparation of the opera had been dogged by artistic and legal disagreement, and Symonette reprised her role as "musical representative" of Lotte Lenya for rehearsals and performances.
She had been ill for several years, undergoing surgery in 1977 and again in 1978, and had initially avoided the implications of her failing health for her late husband's artistic legacy.
However, by the later summer of 1980 she had been persuaded to give the matter serious consideration, and on 25 September a board of six trustees was elected for the newly established "Kurt Weill Foundation".