49 True Facts About Lydia Tár

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49 True Facts About Lydia Tár

1. Lydia Tár’s real name is Linda Tarr.

2. She was born in Staten Island, New York.

3. Tár played competitive field hockey in her youth.

4. Leonard Bernstein was her mentor as an emerging conductor.

5. Tár was the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.

6. Tár won her EGOT awards for the following projects: an Emmy for a guest appearance on American Horror Story: Coven; multiple classical-music Grammys; an Oscar for producing a documentary short about woodwind carvers; a Tony for writing the score to Ivo Van Hove’s adaptation of Rashomon.

7. Interview Magazine had to issue a correction following its “Lydia Tár on Lin-Manuel Miranda” interview when “Page Six” revealed that Tár lied about having seen Hamilton.

8. Tár loved Blonde.

9. Tár called Mother! a “popcorn film.” She later clarified that this was meant as a compliment.

10. Tár has not heard of Ma, but if she saw it, she’d like it.

11. She once said in a commencement address at the Curtis Institute of Music, “Inspiration can come from anywhere. I once saw a man drown in the Hudson.” She never elaborated on this.

12. Kate McKinnon once depicted Tár in a cut-for-time SNL sketch that has been called “my personal David Pumpkins” by more than one Brooklyn-based queer comedian.

13. Tár was rumored to have bribed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association when Mozart in the Jungle won the Golden Globe two years in a row. Tár responded that she does not watch television. (She has since raved about the series Chef’s Table and Borgen.)

14. Gawker has been sued by Tár.

15. In 2022, the Berlin Philharmonic attempted to broaden its reach by inviting Great British Bake Off fan favorite Jürgen Krauss to do a guest performance on trombone. Tár was unreceptive to this idea, and it was promptly canceled.

16. If you search “Ghislaine Maxwell Lydia Tar” on Getty Images, you will get 47 results.

17. Tár used to guest-host for Leonard Lopate on WNYC before he got Me Too’d out of his time slot.

18. Tár has been banned from Balthazar London.

19. Tár briefly trended on Twitter in 2019 when people got mad at her for saying she preferred Once Upon a Time in Hollywood over Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

20. Tár has slept with Kristen Stewart.

21. Tár controversially said that the Palme d’Or should have just gone to the director of Blue Is the Warmest Color, because she believes that “actors are a director’s tools.”

22. Tár performed with James Franco at MoMA PS1 in 2013, producing a piece that art magazine Hyperallergic referred to as “second only to Franco’s work with Marina Abramović,” a statement that led to Tár keying Abramović’s car later that year in retaliation.

23. Tár signed the Roman Polanski letter.

24. Despite her penchant for custom tailoring, she likes Hanes socks best, particularly on concert nights, saying they allow for the “correct bounce.”

25. Tár has never bought Harry Potter books for her daughter, but she has called the J.K. Rowling “hubbub” “a bit much.” (She avoids the books because she loathes “made-up words.”)

26. Tár is friends with Thomas Chatterton Williams.

27. Tár has gone on record saying she doesn’t believe adult ADHD is real.

28. Tár conducted the orchestra at President Obama’s second inauguration.

29. Tár chaired the Met Gala in 2017, as part of the Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons exhibition. At the event, Tár fell down the steps of the Met, prompting the regular circulation of memes claiming that Tár has fallen down various popular staircases.

30. Tár is friends with director Ruben Ostlund and was given a “thanks to” in the credits of The Square.

31. Tár donated to Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign.

32. She admitted on Watch What Happens Live during a game called “What in Tárnation?” that she has seen Real Housewives, but only the Carole Radziwill seasons. She later was peer-pressured into doing a shotski, prompting her to try to make a pun about Shostakovich that was received by the Clubhouse audience with overt confusion. This was the last time she ever made a “joke” on record.

33. Tár was a signatory on the Harper’s “Letter on Justice and Open Debate,” although no one has been able to get her to say much about it on record, as she continually asserts that she has never read Harper’s Bazaar.

34. The employees at the Joe Coffee on Columbus and 68th hate Tár.

35. Tár has not seen Nanette, but she read a New Yorker profile and does not approve, because “I don’t listen to anyone who studied art history in Australia.”

36. Tár already pays $8 a month for a blue check, for unknown reasons.

37. When she tips at all, she tips 18 percent.

38. Tár consulted on the Death Stranding score and has since maintained a friendship with Hideo Kojima.

39. Playwright Jeremy O. Harris once tweeted that he was catching up with his friend Lydia Tár over coffee in Berlin, before later deleting the tweet.

40. Tár walked for Céline in Paris Fashion Week 2015.

41. Taylor Swift brought Tár onstage at the German stop of her 1989 tour. She says of Swift, “She’s a very sweet girl,” but could not name any of her songs when pressed. The two first met when Tár borrowed Swift’s private plane.

42. Tár and Gustavo Dudamel are notorious enemies.

43. Tár appeared in a Sesame Street segment about “counts of eight” that only aired once but is still available on YouTube. The clip has gone viral multiple times for her barely concealed anger every time the Count laughs.

44. One time, a queen was planning to impersonate Tár for Snatch Game and RuPaul was like, “Don’t do that.”

45. Tár is part of the production team behind the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, starring Bradley Cooper (who also starred in the Jackson Maine biopic A Star Is Born).

46. Her favorite vegetable is arugula.

47. She is friends with Yasmin from Industry’s dad.

48. Tár is in a blood feud with Berghain bouncer Sven Marquardt.

49. Upon being reached out to for comment on this piece, Tár replied, via her personal email, “I don’t know what Vulture is.”

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