Brandeis cutting storied Lydian Quartet as part of music department layoffs

Members of Brandeis University’s Lydian Quartet were aghast to learn the school would end support of the ensemble, just one month after the quartet welcomed a new violinist to its ranks. The long-running chamber group has been a staple in the Boston classical music scene for over four decades and earned national acclaim.

Cellist Joshua Gordon, violinist Julia Glenn, violist Mark Berger and violinist Clara Lyon were notified in a Zoom meeting with university leadership on Oct. 1 that Brandeis would not renew their contracts at the end of the academic year.

Lyon only joined the quartet in September, relocating from the Midwest for the position, according to Berger. “That just all leads to our sense of shock that this happened so quickly,” he said. “She was actually presented to the faculty a few weeks before this meeting, by the same person giving us this news.”

"Brandeis has long supported the arts and we are working to ensure that music remains an integral part of our curriculum and our community," senior associate provost for faculty affairs Joel Christensen said in an emailed statement to WBUR. "We have to make some difficult choices in the current challenging environment for higher education and cannot discuss individual personnel decisions."

The Lydian Quartet was founded at Brandeis University in 1980. In its early years, the ensemble studied with famed Juilliard String Quartet founder Robert Koff. The quartet keeps a busy performance schedule and has released and appeared on dozens of studio recordings.

“For us, the four of us individually, it’s been devastating,” said Gordon, who has been with the quartet since 2002. “There's always been a balance in Brandeis between emphasizing the sciences and emphasizing the arts and humanities. … So, to not be able to provide that in the future is going to be, I think, a real blow to the tradition on campus.”

In addition to performing, the quartet’s members are a core part of the music department’s faculty, Berger said. They instruct undergraduate string players, coach chamber music ensembles and teach courses in the music department. Every December, the quartet performs original music by students in the composition program and offers feedback.

One other music department faculty position will be eliminated at the end of the academic year, bringing the total to five – about a third of the entire music department faculty, according to Berger. Last year, the university put the music PhD programs on hiatus, with plans to ultimately end them, sparking outrage from music faculty and students.

“It sure feels like the music department has been disproportionately targeted,” Gordon said. “Right now, we are not accepting any incoming graduate students in the doctoral program, so it feels like we are being whittled away by attrition.”

At a faculty meeting on Oct. 18, university leaders cited falling enrollment and increased competition from public universities as reasons for the budget cuts, according to The Justice, Brandeis’ student newspaper. The paper reported that Brandeis plans to cut 8% of its teaching staff by not renewing a number of its contracts with non-tenured faculty. The paper also reported that ending support for the Lydian Quartet would save the university about $275,000 a year.

"This decision not only hurts the department’s core curriculum, it also works against the values and interest of Brandeis University, as it sends the wrong message to the public about what Brandeis stands for," music department chair Yu-Hui Chang said in an email. "Currently the department is still pushing back at this decision, and we hope we can find a workable solution yet."

The move comes amid ongoing financial troubles for Brandeis. The university laid off around 60 administrative staff over the summer. In September, Brandeis president Ron Liebowitz announced he would resign after a no-confidence vote by faculty.

This is not the first time the university has targeted the arts in seeking to resolve financial woes. During the recession of 2009, Brandeis planned to close the Rose Art Museum and sell off its collection, but ultimately changed course in response to public outcry and a legal settlement that prevented it from auctioning off its art.

Gordon and Berger said they hoped to pressure the university to reverse its decision. But no matter the outcome, Gordon said, “The quartet itself is not disbanding.”