Wednesday, October 21, 2009

J. Karla Lemon

J. Karla Lemon, who conducted at Stanford and with many new music ensembles nationwide, died on October 15 at age 55. She had a catastrophic stroke during surgery intended to correct a congenital heart defect. The full SFCV obituary is here.

Deepest condolences to her partner, soprano Christine Brandes, and other family members.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really only knew Lemon for her stint as orchestral director at Stanford. But those were wonderful student orchestra concerts; no disrespect to the able Jindong Cai who succeeded her, but I've missed her greatly. Blessings to her memory.

Unknown said...

I took her conducting class at Stanford and still have the handouts she gave us -- essays by Erich Leinsdorf, Gustav Meier, Schuller, Bernstein. She would sit on a backwards-facing chair in the middle of the room and talk about the business in a smart and funny way. You could tell she had paid her dues.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Thank you, calimac and David.

Anonymous said...

I was glad to see this blog on wonderful Karla. She was my best friend from lst - 3rd grade at Emerson (aka Emerstink) in Berkeley. We had wonderful adventures together and I have many happy childhood memories. The service Saturday at lst Congregational was so healing and beautiful. She touched so many lives. She was very special.
Janet

Lisa Hirsch said...

Janet, thank you, and I'm sorry - her death was such a personal loss for you.