Dr. Joan Thomson Kretschmer, Artistic Director and founder of the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, attended Smith College, graduated from Barnard College, and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from Columbia University, where she was a Clarence Barker Fellow. She has been a music critic for The New York Post and has written articles about music for The New York Times, Opera News, Stagebill, Keynote, The Greenwich Time and other publications. Her program notes have appeared at concerts at Mostly Mozart, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and elsewhere.
At The New School for Social Research, Dr. Kretschmer created and hosted Musicians on Music, a series of interviews with artists Daniel Barenboim, Victor Borge, the Guarneri String Quartet, Marilyn Horne, Zubin Mehta, Birgit Nilsson, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Peter Schickele, André Watts, Robert Merrill, and others. She has taught at The Juilliard School and lectured at the SUNY at Purchase and for the Metropolitan Opera Guild. At Yale University, she directed an Oral History of Electronics in Music, a collection of interviews with significant innovators in twentieth-century musical life. In addition to writing scripts for radio and national broadcasts of The Richard Tucker Gala, she hosted Upbeat, her own classical music radio show.
A grateful student of pianist Jascha Zayde, she has performed with wind and string players from the New York Philharmonic, including Joseph Robinson, Principal Oboe, and Sheryl Staples, Principal Associate Concert Master.
Joan is the author of YONA: Discoveries, Doorways, and Musical Superpower in which Yona discovers her supernatural musical abilities that can transform human behavior. Yona Goes To The Magic Flute, a recently published sequel, is Yona's adventure to the Metropolitan Opera to learn about Mozart and test her powers. It is in the Met Opera Shop and online. A Thanksgiving Tale is Joan's latest book. She has written Michelangela and Debuts, a book of short stories; all available on Amazon and elsewhere.
Joan was the music consultant on the award-winning film "Le Refuge" by writer/director Elliot Thomson and for Vincent Van Gogh: A Portrait in Two Parts. As an active educator, she gives piano lessons and music classes to all age groups in her studio near Lincoln Center.
Please visit Joan's website at: www.JoanKretschmer.com.