Thank you for joining us at the
Lyra 10th Anniversary Benefit!  

Thanks to all of our supporters for making it possible for Lyra to enrich the lives of young musicians and the broader community through classical music. We are nurturing tomorrow’s musicians today, we are building future audiences and contributing here and now to a thriving culture of music and art in our communities. And it couldn't be done without you!  We are grateful for your continuing support and involvement!

Photo Credit: Yoon Choi and Tom Wool

Lyra Music 10th Anniversary Benefit
Cocktail and Concert! 

 Thursday, November 15th, 2018

GENEROUSLY UNDERWRITTEN BY AN ANONYMOUS DONOR

An Intimate Evening of Music
with the
Brentano Quartet!

THE DIMENNA CENTER FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC
MARY FLAGLER CARY HALL
450 West 37th STREET | NYC

6pm l Cocktails l Hors d'oeuvres
7pm l Ari Freed | Lyra Student
7:15pm l Brentano Quartet
8pm | Meet the Artists

Special Thanks to the Lyra Fundraising Committee
Chairperson: Paula Scully
Kit Voit | Lisa Landau l Mary Prescott

Cocktail Attire

About the Distinguished Guest Performers:
Brentano Quartet

Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim.  “Passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding,” raves the London Independent; the New York Times extols its “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism.”

Since 2014, the Brentano Quartet has served as Artists in Residence at Yale University. The Quartet also currently serves as the collaborative ensemble for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.  Formerly, they were Artists in Residence at Princeton University for many years.

The Quartet has performed in the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York; the Library of Congress in Washington; the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; the Konzerthaus in Vienna; Suntory Hall in Tokyo; and the Sydney Opera House.  The Quartet had its first European tour in 1997, and was honored in the U.K. with the Royal Philharmonic Award for Most Outstanding Debut.

In addition to their interest in performing very old music, the Brentano Quartet frequently collaborates with contemporary composers  Recent commissions include a piano quintet by Vijay Iyer, a work by Eric Moe (with Christine Brandes, soprano), and a viola quintet by Felipe Lara (performed with violist Hsin-Yun Huang).  In 2012, the Quartet provided the central music (Beethoven Opus 131) for the critically-acclaimed independent film A Late Quartet.

The quartet has worked closely with other important composers of our time, among them Elliot Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Chou Wen-chung, Bruce Adolphe, and György Kurtág. The Quartet has also been privileged to collaborate with such artists as sopranos Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, and Joyce DiDonato, and pianists Richard Goode, Jonathan Biss, and Mitsuko Uchida.

The Quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”, the intended recipient of his famous love confession.

Lyra Student Performer

Ari Freed, is an 8th grader at Hunter College High School in Manhattan. He studies cello with Natasha Brofsky in the Juilliard Pre-College program. He began playing cello in kindergarten at the Special Music School, where he studied with Yari Bond. While at SMS, Ari was selected to play in several showcase concerts at Merkin Concert Hall. During the 2017-18 school year, he was enrolled in the Young Artist Program at the Kaufman Music Center where he was selected to perform in the 2018 Henry Schneider Young Virtuoso Concert. In 2018, Ari also won first prize in the Vivo International Music Competition and again performed at Merkin Concert Hall. Ari has also performed at Weill Recital Hall after winning first prize in the 2017 New York Music Competition for Young Artists. He is a member of the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program and has attended specialized summer music programs including: the Lyra Music Festival and Workshop, Greenwood Music Camp, Kinhaven Music Camp, and the JCC Thurnauer Chamber Music Program.