Oct
25
4:00 PM16:00

Viva Bach Peterborough | Peterborough, NH

J.S. BACH “The Art of Fugue” and Arias
Contrapunctus 1-2
Contrapunctus 3-4
Wie freudig ist mein Herz, BWV 199
Canon at the octave
Contrapunctus 6-7
Aria from Pastorella, BWV 590
Contrapunctus 9-1
Canon at the 12th
Contrapunctus 11
Schafe können sicher weiden, BWV 208
Contrapunctus 14

Lydian String Quartet
Mary Bonhag, soprano
Gregory Hayes, organ

Ticket information coming soon here!

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Nov
16
3:00 PM15:00

Goethe-Institut: Beethoven+ Concert 1 | Boston

Beethoven+ Concert 1

BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4
ANDERS HILLBORG (b. 1954) - Kongsgaard Variations (2006)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 12 in Eb major, Op. 127

Beethoven’s early, dramatic, C minor string quartet (Op. 18, No. 4) showcases the boldness of the young composer’s voice where one can hear the roots of tension between classical form and a very personal kind of emotional expression. The majestic Op. 127, the first of Beethoven’s late quartets, is a culmination of this development where the rigors of classical form are subsumed by an intimate lyricism and profound expression. At the heart of this late masterpiece is a sublime set of variations, an archaic form which Beethoven returned to throughout his life, now elevated to a spiritual dimension. Swedish composer Anders Hillborg brings a similar transcendent quality to his own set of variations for string quartet. Based on a fragment from the Arietta of Beethoven’s last piano sonata, the Kongsgaard Variations inhabit the same expressive world as Beethoven’s late-period variations with a distinctively contemporary voice.

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Jan
18
3:00 PM15:00

Goethe-Institut: Beethoven+ Concert 2 | Boston

Beethoven+ Concert 2

BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 18, No. 3
PETER RUZICKA (b. 1948) String Quartet No. 1: Introspezione. Dokumentation (1970)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135

Framed by Beethoven’s earliest completed string quartet and the last major work of his compositional career, this program presents a unique opportunity to witness the development of Beethoven’s musical language. Peter Ruzicka’s Introspezione, a “documentation of mental states during a controlled psychedelic experience” (to quote the score’s preface), offers a hallucinogenic trip through time and space with memories of string quartets by Pfitzner, Webern, as well as Beethoven’s Op. 135 floating through the soundscape.

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Feb
22
3:00 PM15:00

Goethe-Institut: Beethoven+ Concert 3 | Boston

Beethoven+ Concert 3

BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95
HANS THOMALLA (b. 1975) - Bagatellen (2015/16)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59, No. 3

Beethoven’s middle quartets represent the extremes of expansion and compression of form resulting in new kinds of musical expression. His three Razumofsky quartets, Op. 59, presented the world with a bold form of instrumental virtuosity new to the realm of string quartet writing. The classical structures of Haydn and Mozart are expanded and given new life in Op. 59 No. 3, from the ambiguous harmonic soundscape of the introduction recalling Mozart’s Dissonance, to the dazzling fugal finale akin to those found in Haydn’s Sun quartets. In contrast, Beethoven’s Serioso (Op. 95), his shortest and most compact string quartet, strips away all excess to present a potently distilled expression. Hans Thomalla’s Bagatellen carries this distillation of expression to new levels with short explorations of musical gestures, harmonies and melodic patterns.

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May
29
7:30 PM19:30

Goethe-Institut: Beethoven+ Concert 4 | Boston

Beethoven+ Concert 4

BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 18 no. 2
REENA ESMAIL (b. 1983) - Zeher [Poison] (2018)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 15 in A mInor, Op. 132

Beethoven’s Op. 18 No. 2 is a brilliant demonstration of the young composer attempting to make a name for himself in the Vienna of Mozart and Haydn. In contrast, with its celestial Heiliger Dankgesang central slow movement, Op. 132 represents late Beethoven at his most passionate and profound, transcending traditional form and content. In this program, the Heileger Dankgesang, Beethoven’s “song of thanksgiving to God for recovery from an illness, in the lydian mode” is the antidote for Indian-American composer Reena Esmail’s Zeher (Poison), her personal response to “the feelings of frustration, defeat, and feeling of complete and literal voicelessness” experienced during an illness. Zeher was commissioned by Brooklyn Rider as a contemporary response to Beethoven’s Op. 132 for their album Healing Modes.

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León, Guanajuato, Mexico | Teatro del Bicentenario Roberto Plasencia Saldaña (Teatro Estudio)
May
17
8:30 PM20:30

León, Guanajuato, Mexico | Teatro del Bicentenario Roberto Plasencia Saldaña (Teatro Estudio)

  • Teatro del Bicentenario Roberto Plasencia Saldaña (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

https://liberfestival.org/local/teatro-del-bicentenario-roberto-plasencia-saldana/

RICARDO ZOHN-MULDOON: “Barbaverde en Mineralis” chamber opera (2025)**

Leah Brzyski, soprano
Dieter Hennings, guitar
The Lydian String Quartet
Antonio Camacho, stage direction
José Ignacio Solórzano, graphic artist

**World premiere, Winner of the Lydian String Quartet Commission Prize

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Waltham, MA | Slosberg Music Center
Apr
26
7:30 PM19:30

Waltham, MA | Slosberg Music Center

  • Slosberg Music Center, MS051, Brandeis University (map)
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ANTON VON WEBERN Langsamer Satz

REENA ESMAIL This is It (2023)

RICARDO ZOHN-MULDOON “Barbaverde en Mineralis” (2025)**

The Lydian String Quartet

With guest artists:
Leah Brzyski, soprano
Dieter Hennings, guitar

**World premiere of concert version, Winner of the Lydian String Quartet Commission Prize

Ticket information here

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Waltham, MA | Slosberg Music Center
Mar
29
7:30 PM19:30

Waltham, MA | Slosberg Music Center

  • Slosberg Music Center, MS051, Brandeis University (map)
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JEREMY EICHLER Times Echo Live
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet no. 3

The composer Dmitri Shostakovich believed in creating art that bore authentic witness to the dreams and catastrophes of twentieth-century life. Created by critic-historian Jeremy Eichler as part of “Time’s Echo Live”, an acclaimed new series bridging the arts with the humanities, this program blends narrative and live performance to open up multiple new perspectives — on the legacy of Shostakovich, on the memory of the Second World War, and on the meaning of listening. Eichler’s presentation will be followed by a performance of Shostakovich’s String Quartet no. 3 played by the Lydian Quartet.

Ticket information here

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Jan
22
6:00 PM18:00

Boston, MA | Boston Symphony Orchestra

  • The BYSO Youth Center for Music (map)
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Between Two Worlds | Beethoven & Romanticism

Lydian String Quartet
Clara Lyon, violin 1
Miki-Sophia Cloud, violin 2
Mark Berger, viola
Joshua Gordon, cello

Scott Burnham, speaker

BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 16 in F, Op. 135

Beethoven’s last five string quartets hold a special place in Western music history. Though Beethoven is quite fittingly imagined to be the composer who bridged the Classical and Romantic periods, these works seem to operate from some different cultural geography altogether. Timeless, enigmatic, existential, deadly serious and bluntly humorous, full of extreme contrasts, the late quartets are quite unlike anything that came before or after. This group of works is often held up as the quintessential expression of artistic “lateness,” of that which happens to artistic expression toward the end of an artist’s life. Beethoven scholar Scott Burnham discusses the special qualities of Beethoven’s late style as demonstrated through a performance by the acclaimed Boston-based Lydian String Quartet of his final string quartet, Op. 135, with our dear friend and guest artist Miki-Sophia Cloud.

Wed, Jan 22, 2025, 6:00pm EST

Ticket information here

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Dec
13
7:30 PM19:30

Wayland, MA | Wayland Concert Series

  • First Parish in Wayland <<< Note different venue! (map)
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JOSEPH HAYDN String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33 No. 3 (“The Bird”)
LEMBIT BEECHER Juniper and Birch (2024, commissioned by the Lydian String Quartet)
KURT ROHDE seeking all that’s still unsung (2023-2024, commissioned by the Lydian String Quartet)

*This Lydian commission of Kurt Rohde’s work has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Free concert, more information here

Where to park

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Oct
19
7:30 PM19:30

Waltham, MA / BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

  • Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University (map)
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JOSEPH HAYDN String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33 No. 3 (“The Bird”)
LEMBIT BEECHER Juniper and Birch (2024, world premiere, commissioned by the Lydian String Quartet)
JOHANNES BRAHMS String Quintet no. 2 in G major, op. 111

With guest artist Steven Ansell, principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Tickets: $20/$15/$5/free available online, more info here

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May
5
3:00 PM15:00

WALTHAM, MA / BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

  • Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University (map)
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The 2023 annual Henri Lazarof Chamber Concert at Brandeis University

HENRI LAZAROF String Quartet no. 8
other works TBA

The Henri Lazarof Living Legacy at Brandeis University celebrates the life and impact of Henri Lazarof, the world-renowned composer, conductor, pianist and teacher.

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Apr
10
7:00 PM19:00

Boston, MA / Symphony Hall

Music For The Senses
presented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (info here)

7pm / Panel Discussion: Composing the Future of Health

Tod Machover, moderator (composer, Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music & Media, MIT Media Lab)
Li-Huei Tsai, Ph.D. (Picower Professor of Neuroscience & Director of Picower Institute for Learning & Memory, MIT)
Psyché Loui (Northeastern University, Music Neuroscience Researcher)

Civilizations have used music for millennia to modulate mood and promote health, but science and technology are only now starting to uncover the secrets of how and why sound affects us so deeply. This panel will discuss the latest research into how music can treat disease, how specific frequencies may reverse degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, how innovative compositions might be created that maximize the impact of these new discoveries, and how a new field of Music Medicine is being increasingly discussed as an imminent reality by musicians, physicians, researchers, and government funding agencies.

8pm / Free Concert

Samy Rachid and Stephen Drury, conductors
Callithumpian Consort
[nec]shivaree
Joseph Vasconi, piano
Carduus
 Holly Druckman, director
Lydian String Quartet

TOD MACHOVER Gammified, for string quartet and electronics
MARTI EPSTEIN Troubled Queen
OLIVIER MESSIAEN Catalogue d’oiseaux, No. 3: ‘Le Merle Bleu’
MORTON FELDMAN Rothko Chapel

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Apr
6
7:30 PM19:30

Waltham, MA / Brandeis University

  • Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University (map)
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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartet in F minor, op. 95
KURT ROHDE seeking all that’s still unsung (2023-2024, world premiere*)
MAURICE RAVEL String Quartet

Ticket information here

*This commission of Kurt Rohde’s new work has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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Apr
3
12:00 PM12:00

WALTHAM, MA / Brandeis University

  • Mandel Center Atrium, Brandeis University (map)
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BEETHOVEN String Quartet In F Minor, Op. 95
KURT ROHDE seeking all that’s still unsung (2023-2024, world premiere*)

Free admission

*This commission of Kurt Rohde’s new work has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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Oct
7
7:30 PM19:30

Waltham / Brandeis University

  • Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University (map)
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Brandeis Music Department annual Irving Fine Tribute Concert
Slosberg Music Center

IRVING FINE String Quartet (1952)
DAVID RAKOWSKI String Quartet “And Antigone Needed to Do Something With Her Hands And She Did It (2022, world premiere)

plus woodwind quintets by Fine and Shapero played by the Chameleon Arts Ensemble

Free admission

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Durham, NC / Kirby Horton Hall, Doris Duke Center at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens
Aug
17
7:00 PM19:00

Durham, NC / Kirby Horton Hall, Doris Duke Center at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens

  • Kirby Horton Hall, Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University (map)
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The final concert of the Ciompi Quartet Presents summer chamber music series features Caroline Stinson (cello) performing with the Lydian String Quartet, Rachel Calin (bass) and Adriana Linares (viola).

Program:

BOCCHERINI: Cello Quintet, "Night Music of the Streets of Madrid"
JOHN HARBISON: “Presences” for solo cello, string quartet, and bass, commissioned to honor the young cellist, David Anderson (1978-1998);
BRAHMS: Sextet for Strings in G Major op. 36, the early joyful flowering of Brahms' musical voice.

Caroline Stinson is cellist with the Ciompi String Quartet at Duke where she is Associate Professor of the Practice and Director of the Chamber Music Program. The Lydian String Quartet (Andrea Segar and Julia Glenn, violins; Mark Berger, viola; Joshua Gordon, cello) has been acclaimed by audiences and critics across the USA and abroad for embracing the full range of the string quartet repertory with curiosity, virtuosity, and dedication to the highest artistic ideals of music making. The Lydians have long championed the commissioning, performing and recording of new works, and all members of the group are on the faculty of Brandeis University. Bassist Rachel Calin has been called "a lyrical soloist in command of her instrument," by the New York Times. She has appeared in concert throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, and can be heard on NPR's "Performance Today." Adriana Linares is the founding violist of the award winning Dalí Quartet, with whom she has embarked on recording, performing and educational projects in the US and abroad. She currently serves on the faculty at West Chester University of PA, as part of the Dalí Quartet residency.

Subscriptions for all three concerts in the Ciompi Quartet Presents summer chamber music series are $60. Single tickets are $25 General Public; $20 Non-Duke Students/Duke Employees; $10 Youth/Duke students. Tickets may be purchased online at https://tickets.duke.edu or call 919-684-4444.

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Aug
13
2:00 PM14:00

Falls Village, CT / Gordon Hall, Music Mountain

ELEANOR ALBERGA AND THE MUSIC OF THE JAMAICAN NIGHTS
Eleanor Alberga will join us via videoconference at 2pm to talk about Home and Belonging in her music, and to allow us to get to know her and her music better, in preparation for our performance of her String Quartet No. 2 at Music Mountain. Questions from the audience are welcome. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Eleanor Alberga is a highly-regarded mainstream British composer with commissions from the BBC Proms and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. With a substantial output ranging from solo instrumental works to full-scale symphonic works and operas, her music is performed all over the world. Eleanor Alberga’s music is being presented at Music Mountain for the first time. Our 3pm concert also features music by Mozart and Brahms with our special guest pianist Victoria Schwartzman! Website link here

Eleanor ALBERGA String Quartet #2
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART String Quartet in E Flat Major, Op. 10 #3, K. 428, "Haydn"
Johannes BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34

Buy tIckets here

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May
7
3:00 PM15:00

WALTHAM, MA / BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

  • Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

The 2023 annual Henri Lazarof Chamber Concert at Brandeis University

HENRI LAZAROF String Quartet no. 6
other works TBA

The Henri Lazarof Living Legacy at Brandeis University celebrates the life and impact of Henri Lazarof, the world-renowned composer, conductor, pianist and teacher.

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Copyright 2024 by the Lydian String Quartet

Lydian String Quartet
Slosberg Music Center, MS 051
Brandeis University
415 South St
Waltham MA 02454

781-736-3338
info@lydianquartet.com
www.lydianquartet.com

Site design by Joshua Gordon

Photos by Ashleigh Dye, Christopher Huang, Mike Lovett, Robert Mattson, and the Lydian iPhone collaborative, unless otherwise indicated

Audio edited by Mark Berger and Joshua Gordon