New EU president is maestro’s niece

New EU president is maestro’s niece

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norman lebrecht

July 03, 2019

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, who has been nominated to succeed the unstable Juncker as president of the European Commission, has serious musical connections.

She was born Ursula Albrecht, daughter of a senior EU civil servant with a penchant for family sing-ons.

Her father’s brother is George Alexander Albrecht, former GMD of Weimar Opera. Her first cousin is Marc Albrecht, music director of Netherland Opera.

She knows her sharps from her flats.

Ursula is the reluctant one in the scarf.

Comments

  • anon says:

    Can she handel britten, with their liszt of demands, because to be franck, it’s a messiaen complicated affair, because with someone like Boris Johnson, you can’t telemann what to do, or will she be haydn behind Macron, everyone will be watching her first faure into EU politics.

  • John Borstlap says:

    The LP cover makes one shiver.

  • John Rook says:

    She also has seven children, not one of them accidental.

    • Bob Boles says:

      Makes a change. Most of the other NATO loons are childless – Macron, May, Merkel, Varadar, Haspel. No reason not to press the button.

    • Jaime Herrera says:

      If she can handle seven kids – assuming she didn’t hire two or three nannies to help out – she can handle the EU with one hand tied…. or both hands tied…. Who knows.

  • Tamino says:

    [redacted: final warning]
    Her father was 14 years prime minister of the German state of Lower Saxony. Never a EU civil servant.

    • norman lebrecht says:

      Wikipedia: was one of the first European civil servants appointed in 1958 and served as Director-General of the Directorate-General for Competition from 1967 to 1970. He served as Prime Minister of the state of Lower Saxony from 1976 to 1990.

  • LEWES BIRD says:

    What exactly is “unstable” about Juncker? I’ll even accept Wikipedia as a source for this Daily Mail-style headline. (And please don’t reply suggesting you meant his sciatica that makes him wobbly; think of karma if you’ll take that low path — one day it will be you.)

    • norman lebrecht says:

      He’s a drunkard.

      • Saxon Broken says:

        Er…that is just the British Brexit press being nasty. You really shouldn’t believe what they say.

        The evidence that usually gets shown of him being wobbly is because he has sciatica, which makes it hard for him to walk properly (making him look “wobbly”).

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