The Lydians Redux: An interview with violist Mark Berger
May 18, 2021
Photo Credit: Susan Wilson
by Phil Radoff and Jack Curley
As many BOLLI members are aware, Brandeis is one of the few private liberal arts universities that have a music ensemble in residence, the Lydian String Quartet. The University provides a permanent venue for the ensemble’s rehearsals and performances, and Brandeis music students profit from the presence of renowned performing musicians on the faculty. For BOLLI members who miss attending the Lydians’ live, on-campus performances, be aware that the members of the ensemble miss you, too — a message that came across loud and clear during a recent Zoom visit with violist Mark Berger, a Lydian since 2014.
For Mark, as for us all, the spring of 2020 was a time of retrenchment and withdrawal from everyday activities. For the Lydians, this meant the end of in-person rehearsals and live concerts, and entry into a new, largely unexplored world of virtual performance. According to Mark, “the impact was devastating.” All Lydian members have families, so the troubling early questions about virus transmission caused the group to shut down its professional activities for several months. Restrictions were eased somewhat last fall, as more information about Covid became available. The situation was further improved when Brandeis generously offered a dedicated space in which the group could meet and rehearse (while masked and socially-distanced).
In their dual capacity as Brandeis professors and private instructors, the Quartet’s members have continued to work during the pandemic. Mark currently teaches a remote class on western music to a group of about fifty Brandeis students, “half of whom,” he says, “are based in the ‘other’ hemisphere.” Needless to say, time zone differences and transmission issues have proven to be quite challenging. In-person private lessons for piano and string students have been ongoing, always with proper COVID-19 protocols in place.
Mark also performs with several non-Brandeis groups, including The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Boston Pops, and Emmanuel Music, all of which were forced to cancel live performances as the pandemic runs its course. He is pleased to note, however, that, of late, Boston’s music scene has begun to come to life again with both live-streamed and pared-down live performances at Emmanuel Church and other venues.
The Lydians take pride in performing new music in addition to the traditional staples of the quartet repertory. Mark finds that working with a living composer provides a unique opportunity to “bring something to life and create a learning experience for everyone, including the audience.” He believes that the performance of new music creates a sort of “contract” among three parties: the composer, who comes up with a concept that he/she translates into musical notation; the performer, whose interpretation brings the concept to life; and the audience, which must strive to make the piece a part of its own emotional experience.
At the end of April, the Quartet performed a set of four new works by current Brandeis graduate student composers under the auspices of New Music Brandeis, a concert series programmed and managed by Brandeis students. The event was part of this year’s Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. The performance is currently available on YouTube. And here are the Lydians performing a more traditional work by Franz Joseph Haydn at Slosberg Music Center last fall.
Later this year, in recognition of their 40th Anniversary, the Lydians will present a live performance of a newly-commissioned clarinet quintet by composer and MacArthur Genius Vijay Iyer, featuring well-known clarinetist David Krakauer.
Mark and his colleagues welcome the return of live performances. “A live audience provides energy in the air and the thrill of being observed,” he says. “Whatever we do as performers means nothing unless somebody is listening to it.” Mark maintains that there is a “melding of minds” of composer, performers, and audience that can occur only in a live performance, and — BOLLI music lovers take note — the Lydians are eager to renew your acquaintance!