Judith Eissenberg

We are happiest when we are making. As a teacher, a performer, and a human being, I hope to inspire making.

Judith Eissenberg joined Boston Conservatory in 2001 and is a professor of music teaching chamber music.

Judith Eissenberg’s musical roots begin in the deep and ever-broadening repertoire of the string quartet. She is a founder/second violin (1980-2022) of the Grammy-nominated Lydian String Quartet, recognized for its depth of interpretation, performing with "a precision and involvement marking them as among the world's best quartets" (Chicago Sun-Times). The LSQ received top prizes at the Evian (1982, Best Performance of a Contemporary Piece and Best Performance of a French Piece), Banff (1983), and Portsmouth (1985) International String Quartet Competitions, winning the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1984. With more than 30 recordings (Nonesuch, CRI, Harmonia Mundi, New World Records, Musica Omnia, Albany Records, etc.) and multiple commissions, premieres, and dedications, the quartet is recognized for its fresh and incisive approach: “(the Lydian) revealed a fire that makes all timeless music forever contemporary” (Washington Post). Eissenberg performs in the US and abroad (Europe, Taiwan, Australia), including in major concert venues (Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Library of Congress, etc.), and has enjoyed residencies at colleges, universities and conservatories. Other chamber music affiliations include Boston Chamber Music Society, Emmanuel Music, and various summer festivals throughout the US. With experience in period instrument performance, she has been soloist with and core member of Boston Baroque and Handel and Haydn Society.

Eissenberg collaborates with musicians in western classical, jazz, Korean Gugak, Indian classical, Chinese classical, and enjoys cross-disciplinary work in film, theater, dance, electronics/digital, video, etc. The quartet received the 2005 Top Classical Performance Award (Boston Globe), the 1992 Boston Globe Best Contemporary Recording, as well as Best Record of the Year and Artists of the Year (Boston Globe, 1990). She has received multiple grants and awards for her work in the Western classical tradition, including from the Copland Foundation, Pew Charitable Trust, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer/Rockefeller Foundation/AT Jazz Program, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and Readers’ Digest. She has also received grants and fellowships for her work and research in diverse world traditions, including: a grant (2016) from Center Stage Korea, a grant (2014) from the Whiting Foundation Fellowship for research in Andean Music of Peru, was a (2013) Harvard University Fellow for studies in Ethnomusicology, received a (2013) Norman Grant for Faculty Research to go to Bamako, Mali and a (2011) fellowship sponsored by South Korean government to attend the International Gugak Workshop in Seoul, one of 19 international participants. 

She is Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University (1980-2022) where she founded the Lydian String Quartet and the intercultural residency program MusicUnitesUS, and is Professor of Music at Boston Conservatory at Berklee (2001-present).