What do Lizzo, this Montreal musician and a French clockmaker have in common? A crystal flute

My name is Mika Putterman. I am a flutist and I specialize in historical flutes. So this is my crystal glass flute made by Claude Laurent in 1819. I saw one first in a museum in Paris when I was a student there and I was drawn to the instrument even then. And somebody I knew was selling one for a friend of his, and I thought, oh, should I see it? Should I try it? I was worried. I thought, what if it is just an object of beauty? What if it was a gimmick? What if it doesn't sound good? So I took a trip to try it, and right away, I was blown away by the quality of this instrument. I couldn't believe that something that was so intriguing and looked so beautiful also sounded so beautiful. This is the first time I think that there's a performance of a crystal flute in Canada. Ever? Ever. A lot of stories came up about the flute. The one famous story being its connection to Napoleon. Every time I've seen a flute in a museum, the description of the flute says, and Napoleon owned one too. Curious about that, we did a little further digging. We don't know for sure and we have to be careful with our words. Of course everyone has a vested interest in saying that Napoleon owned a flute like this because it would increase its value. The other fun little story around this flute was the fact that Lizzo did play one. We know that Laurent sent one to President James Madison. The Library of Congress invited Lizzo to come try some flutes one of them being James Madison's flute and so we touch on themes of black erasure of Napoleon and dictatorship all through this crystal flute