Louise Fleur Meyers Schlesinger Spizizen (August 24, 1928 – July 2, 2010) was an American composer, music critic, harpsichordist, pianist, and singer. She is best known for her research and controversial claim that pianist Johana Harris was the actual composer of music published under the name of her husband, composer Roy Harris.
Life and Education
Spizizen was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, to Lillian Gordon and Louis Samuel Meyers. She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and earned music degrees from Vassar College and the University of California, San Diego. Her teachers included Robert Erickson, Kenneth Galburo, Gustav Leonhardt, Josef Mars, John Metz, Wilbur Ogdon, Wallingford Riegger, and Roslyn Tureck.
She married Eugene Richard Schlesinger in 1948, with whom she had three sons and a daughter before divorcing. In 1969, she married Dr. John Spizizen.
Career
Spizizen held a variety of professional positions, including music director of Interplayers Inc. in New York (1949–1952), singer/accompanist with the Westchester County Civic Opera (1954–1957), and singer/accompanist/composer with the Madrigal Singers in Westport, Connecticut (1959–1965). She also taught music privately and at the University of California.
She published music reviews and criticism in the La Jolla Light, Los Angeles Times, San Diego Reader, and Tucson Weekly, as well as articles in various music journals. She performed as an accompanist, harpsichordist, or singer with the Arizona Opera, Civic Orchestra of Tucson, and San Diego Symphony.
Spizizen created free lunchtime concert series in public venues such as shopping malls in San Diego and Tucson. She founded the Arizona Early Music Society and served as its president, and co-founded the Basically Baroque Symposium at the University of California San Diego.
Johana Harris Controversy
Spizizen spent the last decade of her life working on a biography of pianist Johana Harris, arguing that Johana had actually composed some of the works published under Roy Harris's name. She published her findings in The Musical Quarterly (1993) and presented them at the 1996 College Music Society Conference. She died before completing the biography.
Selected Works
- Birthday of the Infanta (ballet for harpsichord, chamber orchestra, and piano)
- Realizations of works by Heinrich Biber, Johan Friedrich Fasch, Jean-Marie Leclair, and Pietro Locatelli
- Sacred Service for Reformed Jewish Congregation (women's voices and organ)
- Three Games for Ten Players (string quintet and chorus)
- Three Rounds for Mothers (a cappella chorus)
- Weary with Toil (a cappella chorus)
- Six scores for Invisible Theatre productions
- Sweep It Clean (musical comedy, 1946)
Death
Spizizen died on July 2, 2010, in Tucson, Arizona, from complications of Alzheimer's disease. She was 81 years old. Her correspondence with author and composer Nicolas Slonimsky is archived in the Library of Congress Music Division.
