Judith Eissenberg is the second violinist and a founding member of The Lydian String Quartet ,on the faculty of Brandeis University since 1980. With the quartet, she has won numerous international prizes, including the Naumburg Award for Excellence in Chamber Music, recorded, commissioned new works, and has toured extensively in the US and abroad. A performer on both modern and period instruments, Ms. Eissenberg has been a member and soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra and has appeared with other performing organizations in Boston, including the Boston Chamber Music Society, The Boston Conservatory Chamber Players, Emmanuel Music, Boston Pops, and Boston Baroque. She is a founding member and a co-director of Music From Salem, a chamber music festival in upstate NY founded in 1987.
At Brandeis, Ms. Eissenberg created and teaches the chamber music course MUS 116: Chamber Music: Performance and Analysis from the Players’ Perspective, a course integrating structural analysis with traditional chamber music coaching, and an advanced course for performers: Surfing the New Wave: Survival Techniques in Contemporary Chamber Music Performance.
In 2003-2004, Ms. Eissenberg, who is also certified to teach elementary classroom (1-6) in MA, founded and is now the Director of MusicUnitesUs, an innovative outreach program that brings public school students to the Brandeis University campus for a series of diverse music performances that reflect social studies lessons in the classroom. The MUUS programs are carefully shaped to reinforce the content of the related classroom lesson plans. In the context of history and culture, music becomes a powerful teaching tool - an authentic voice revealing cultural values, expressing overarching social themes such as freedom and justice, and exploring issues of identity. Not only do these programs enhance the academic curriculum, they also address issues of multiculturalism and diversity.
Ms. Eissenberg is also on the faculty at The Boston Conservatory, coaching chamber music.
