The Leonard Bernstein Scholarship
Brandeis University, together with the world-renowned Lydian String Quartet, is proud to announce auditions for the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship. Begun in fall 2003, the program grants full-tuition awards each year to qualified entering freshman violinists, violists, and cellists. Qualified pianists with chamber music experience are also eligible. Applicants need not plan to be music majors. These awards are renewable for each of the student's four years at Brandeis University.
In addition to the monetary award, each member of the newly formed ensemble will receive intensive coaching and private instrumental lessons with the Lydian String Quartet and other top faculty artists. They will also have the opportunity to perform a full chamber music recital each year.
Applying for the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship
Please note that the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship is the only scholarship at Brandeis for which there is a separate application process. Students are required to submit a sample of their work and at least one recommendation no later than November 15, in addition to their application for admission to Brandeis. Students selected for live auditions will be notified in December and invited to campus in early February 2008. For further information about applications, requirements, and deadlines, please contact Mary Ruth Ray, Lydian String Quartet, at ray@brandeis.edu.
Download a copy of the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship Application, as well as additional information about the scholarship and requirements.
About the Lydians…
Since its formation in 1980, the Lydian String Quartet has inspired critical acclaim worldwide. The Quartet's interpretive mastery of such traditional repertoire as Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven, and Ravel – along with its special flair for contemporary music – has won the ensemble prizes at international competitions in Canada, France, and England, and the prestigious Naumburg Award for Chamber Music.The Lydian String Quartet has performed extensively throughout the United States in venues such as Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall, Jordan Hall (Boston), the Library of Congress, and the Kennedy Center. Internationally, the Quartet has performed in major concert series in England, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, and Armenia. Since 1988, the Quartet has hosted the Lydian String Quartet Chamber Music Festival, an intensive chamber music workshop held at Brandeis University during the month of June. Spring of 2007 launched the Lydians on a five-year musical tour entitled “Around the World in a String Quartet.” This colorful new exploration delves into chamber music from around the world, including examples this coming season from Azerbaijan, China, and Iran. From 2001-2006, the Lydian’s five-year project, “Vienna and the String Quartet,” surveyed the heart of the string quartet repertory; juxtaposing new and old Vienna, their programs featured music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Kreisler, Schoenberg, Webern and Berg. Marking the end of the millennium, their five-year “American Originals” project featured the rich repertoire of the 20th-century American string quartet. During that time they performed or recorded over sixty works by American composers, accompanying their concerts with workshops, lectures and discussions. Their previous retrospective celebrating Jewish culture featured such composers as Bloch, Boykan, Wyner, Shostakovich, Golijov and Leo Ornstein.
Winners of two Chamber Music America/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, the Quartet has also received grants from the Meet the Composer/Rockefeller Foundation/AT&T Jazz Program in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, and numerous awards from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.
Essential to the spirit of the Lydian String Quartet is the commissioning and recording of new works. The Lydian Quartet has released more than twenty recordings of music from Schubert and Brahms through Hyla, Boykan, Ornstein, Wyner and Harbison. Their recording of John Harbison’s String Quartet No. 3 and “The Rewaking” was chosen by both the New York Times and the Boston Globe as one of the best recordings of 2001. Their most recent release, the Four String Quartets of Vincent Persichetti, is available on Centaur Records.
As professors of the practice on the faculty of Brandeis University, members of the Quartet coach chamber music ensembles and work closely with Brandeis faculty and students composers on works in progress. Integral to the idea of a research university, the Lydian String Quartet serves as a realistic model of working artists for members of the undergraduate community with whom they have contact.