A Conversation with the Lyric’s Joan Kretschmer
by Irving Spitz

Joan Thomson Kretschmer is the Lyric Chamber Music Society’s founder, Artistic Director and pianist. Founded in 1997, the Lyric had its first concert in1998 and continues to be dedicated to providing musicians an opportunity to perform chamber music. “We seek to draw national attention to the positive effects of music and to elucidate the ways in which music helps to develop the human mind and spirit,” explains Kretchmer. The Lyric’s concerts feature award-winning, established musicians, first-chair players in major orchestras, and young performers who perform in The Kosciuszko Foundation, a turn-of-the-(20th) century Manhattan mansion, where audiences sit a few feet away from the musicians. Following is a conversation with her about her life as a musician and her thoughts on music education.

Spitz: What made you decide to make a professional career as a musician?

Kretschmer: That decision was made only relatively recently, in the late 1980’s. A friend, who went to medical school and became a doctor in his 40s, encouraged me to go to music school. Becoming a professional musician has been a “late-blooming” activity.

S: What were the major musical milestones in your life?

K: First, getting a piano as a child. Next, playing the trombone in junior high and high school. Then, getting an MA and Ph.D. from Columbia in Musicology. Then, studying with Jascha Zayde, and recently, performing with great musicians from the New York Philharmonic such as Joseph Robinson, principal oboe and Sheryl Staples, principal associate concertmaster.

S: What is your greatest achievement to date?

K: My two sons: nurturing and watching them develop their talents, their good hearts, and their fine minds.

S: Has being a woman factored into your professional activity?

K: Yes. My mother encouraged me to get academic degrees, in case I’d have to support myself. I think being a woman both hindered and helped my career development. I was taught at home that I should never show my intellect, that men wouldn’t feel comfortable with a smart woman. That was ridiculous, and it took me years to find those who encouraged me to stand on my own two feet. Being a mother and a woman, in the role of nurturer, volunteer and enabler, helped me to deal with people, as I stepped out into the “real world” beyond suburban life.

S: Do you believe that the young people receive an adequate musical education?

K: Music is often treated as a peripheral activity, not a serious pursuit that can train the mind and enrich our emotional life. It is usually taught after school, relegated to a low rung on the list of educational priorities, and entrusted to teachers who credentials are often not even evaluated. Those we remember in history—Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and other great composers—have left us great legacies, which should not be ignored.

S: How could this be changed?

K: First, people need to understand how important music is and can be to our lives, to our brain and to our emotional well-being. We need to make sure that children study instruments and the great works of art which have been handed down to us.

S: What does the Lyric Chamber Music Society do to further music education?

K: We give students an opportunity to attend dress rehearsals, and we have sent musicians to schools for master classes, coaching and concerts. Our Encounters with Great Artists of Our Age was inaugurated by the world-renowned flutist, the late Jean-Pierre Rampal. We are now searching for dynamic music teachers and students who will want to study the music and history of the program being performed.

For more information about the Lyric
Chamber Music Society, visit www.lyricny.org.

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