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 the Conservatory in 2001 and is a professor of chamber music. She coordinates the chamber music program, coaches chamber music, and curates programs in collaboration with Silkroad, whose artists work with Conservatory students in a variety of settings.

Eissenberg’s musical roots began in the deep and ever-broadening repertoire of the string quartet. She was a founder and second violinist (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 Rencontres musicales d’Evian (1982), including Second Grand Prize, Best Performance of a Contemporary Piece, and Best Performance of a French Piece. The group also received prizes at the Banff (1983) and Portsmouth (1985) international string quartet competitions, winning the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1984. 

With over 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 U.S. 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. Her other chamber music affiliations have included Boston Chamber Music Society, Emmanuel Music, and various summer festivals throughout the U.S. With experience in period instrument performance, she has been a soloist with and core member of Boston Baroque and the Handel and Haydn Society.

Eissenberg collaborates with musicians in western classical, jazz, Korean Gugak, Indian classical, and Chinese classical, and enjoys cross-disciplinary work in film, theater, dance, electronics/digital, video, etc. The quartet received critical acclaim at home, earning recognitions from the Boston Globe that include Top Classical Performance, Best Contemporary Recording, and Artists of the Year. With the LSQ, she has received multiple grants and awards for the group’s 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 Reader’s Digest. She has also received grants and fellowships for her own research in diverse world traditions, including a grant from Center Stage Korea (2016) and from the Whiting Foundation (2014) for her research in Andean Music of Peru. Eissenberg was a Harvard University Fellow (2013) for studies in ethnomusicology, and received a Norman Grant for Faculty Research (2013) to go to Bamako, Mali. And in 2011, she received a fellowship sponsored by the South Korean government to attend the International Gugak Workshop in Seoul, as one of 19 international participants. 

In addition to her work at the Conservatory, Eissenberg is professor emeritus at Brandeis University (1980–2022), where she founded the Lydian String Quartet and the intercultural residency program MusicUnitesUS. She is a member of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee Faculty Council, is committed to anti-racism work, and is an Equity Partner.