Lizzo’s historic crystal flute moment, and why it matters

One of the biggest, most controversial stories last week was that a classically-trained musician played an antique flute. Make that make sense.

Of course, this wasn’t just any musician, but Emmy-winning pop diva Lizzo. The flute in question was a more than 200-year-old crystal model that President James Madison once owned. And some people lost their daggone minds.

Many of those mad about the flute playing by the proud former marching band member and self-described “baddest piccolo player in the land” probably never knew the historic instrument existed before now. That didn’t stop them from acting like Lizzo had rolled up on the Library of Congress, stuck it in her thong and quickly twerked away to her tour bus.

You know who’s not mad about it? The folks at Montpelier, Madison’s former home, who have extended an open invitation to Lizzo to come perform there anytime. Also pleased? Carla Hayden, the current librarian of Congress and Baltimore resident. She’s the one who, on Twitter, invited Lizzo to the storied Washington, D.C., facility to play that precious artifact and briefly use it at her Sept. 27 show at D.C.’s Capital One Arena.

Yes, there was twerking. Nobody died. It’s all fine.

Hayden, the former director of Enoch Pratt Free Library, is on a mission to create a better connection between the public, particularly young people, and the over 173 million items in the library’s collection. When she watched the magic — between Lizzo, and the fans who see the joy with which she lifted that flute to her glossy lips — she knew she was on to something.

“It’s a learning opportunity, to realize that music can be cool. Cool people play classical music,” said Hayden, who had wanted to connect with Lizzo since before the start of the pandemic and whose parents were both classical musicians. “One comment that touched me was that a lot of Black and brown girls might be asking for flutes this Christmas.”

News of Lizzo’s time with the flute also thrilled Susanna Klein, an internationally known violinist, associate professor of violin and area coordinator of strings at Richmond’s Virginia Commonwealth University, and a graduate of Baltimore City College High School. As a musician and teacher, she says she’s always grateful for whatever sparks young people to discover art.

“Lizzo has a much greater reach than most of us could imagine. If you can see your idol play, that’s a big thing. She has more influence on building that next generation of musicians,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re playing upside-down hanging from a roof, as long as you’re playing.”

Lizzo isn’t the first musician to be invited to play pieces from the library’s collection. Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell have played Stradivarius stringed instruments from the library, and Smokey Robinson and Lionel Richie have both sat down at George Gershwin’s piano. Klein herself got to play a few notes on one of the Stradivarius violins about five years ago on a visit to the library with her students.

The “Good as Hell” singer’s own over three-hour visit to the vault that is the home of the Dayton C. Miller collection — which has close to 1,700 flutes and other instruments — and was guided by musical instrument curator Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford was “like a master class in the history of the flutes” Hayden said.

She was thrilled not only by “seeing her [Lizzo] respected and treated like the professional musician she is,” but of the reaction of a younger staffer watching Lizzo hold an antique piccolo “like a member of the marching band, which is who she was. It was pure joy.”

It’s hard to argue against joy, but as silly as it is, a lot of the critics are. I think they’re confounded by the glee with which Lizzo, a very successful, talented woman who is also fat and Black, exists. She loves herself as she is, unapologetically sexual and free in her own body. All of this is confusing in our weight-obsessed culture, which usually only allows non-skinny female celebrities to exist if they’re self-deprecating or crying on a talk show about how much they hate themselves.

The haters are like the Grinch, stupefied that he stole all the decorations and roast beast in Whoville and Christmas came anyway. They’re seething while Lizzo’s performing in a sold-out show playing the flute in stilettos. It’s quite delicious.

One of the dumbest arguments against Lizzo’s performance was that the twerking allegedly brought shame to the flute’s legacy. This is rich, considering that part of Madison’s legacy was being a slaveowner who suggested that enslaved people be counted on a three-fifths ratio compared to white people. So the sight of a talented and fully human Black woman playing something that Madison owned in the same manner as actual people was transcendent. Cry about it.

Klein thinks the sexuality of the twerking is appropriate for classic music.

“Great operas have been about sex and love triangles and this husband swapping with this wife,” she said. “There’s a complete misunderstanding that this music was this puritan thing. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The triumph for her is in the possibility of that aforementioned spark, whether it leads to a career or just the love of putting a bow to a string and lightly bearing down to make a joyful noise. I can personally vouch for the power in connecting masterpieces to the modern world. As a not-great violin student in high school, I was drawn to Bach’s “Minuet in G major,” a piece my very patient teacher introduced me to. As a devotee of 1960s girl groups, I recognized it immediately as the basis of The Toys’ romantically gorgeous “A Lover’s Concerto.”

I loved that song, so I fell in love with that Bach piece, which I played in my one and only recital. The name of that teacher who provided that spark? Beatrix Klein-Rapp, who happens to be Susanna Klein’s mother. Susanna, who I hadn’t seen in more than 30 years until connecting for this story, didn’t remember that, but she was delighted to know I’d proved her point.

“See?” she said. “You know!”

Hayden is banking on those moments sparked by Lizzo’s visit.

“She took delight in the collection,” she said. “I hope more people do. Kids don’t know about James Madison, but because of Lizzo, they now know they can stick a flute in their backpack and maybe not get bullied, inspiring kids to say ‘This is all right.’”

leslie.streeter@thebaltimorebanner.com

Leslie Gray Streeter

leslie.streeter@thebaltimorebanner.com

Leslie Gray Streeter is a columnist excited about telling Baltimore stories — about us and the things that we care about, that touch us, that tickle us and that make us tick, from parenting to pop culture to the perfect crab cake. She is especially psyched about discussions that we don't usually have. Open mind and a sense of humor required.

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