in August about her history playing the flute. She was chosen by a flute specialist teacher to play the instrument in fifth grade. “I don't know why she picked me,” Lizzo said. “I think—later on, she was like, you know, you just had a good embouchure. I could tell you'd have a good flute embouchure, which is, you know, your mouth. But I don't know. And I was, like, grateful because I wanted to play flute. I thought it was the coolest instrument.
“I was very, very, very serious [about my flute career],” Lizzo said. “I studied flute. I played it every night. When I was a senior in high school, or a junior, I started studying with the principal flutist of the Houston Opera, and she was also a professor at the University of Houston. So I was studying with Sydney Carlson for years. And she was kind of, like, priming me to go to U of H. She got me my scholarship to U of H.
“I was going to to study flute at the Paris Conservatory,” she continued. “And I was going to really just, you know, wait in line for that first chair. I saw a life of Concert Black and Boston Pops and traveling the world. And when that didn't pan out for me, I was very depressed. I was very sad. I don't really know what happened. I think the pressure of those two worlds kind of got to me. Because I was waking up every morning at like 6 A.M.
“And then at night, I would stay up and rap at fashion shows, and try to stay up, and keep up with all the fraternities and sororities,” she said. “And that was really taking a toll on me. And I was like, who are you, you know? At this point, you could do it all through high school, but you're in college now. You're about to be who you're going to be forever. And now, who is that?”Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.
Lizzo better do it!