Composer Lembit Beecher Wins 2022 Lydian Quartet Commission Prize

The commission is valued at $15,000, and Beecher's work will be premiered in the Fall of 2024

The Lydian String Quartet recently named American-Estonian composer and animator Lembit Beecher as the recipient of its Commission Prize for 2022. Beecher will receive a $15,000 commission fee to compose a large-scale work for the quartet of 15-30 minutes in length.

The competition is open to composers of all ages, nationalities, genders, races, and religions. It is judged completely anonymously by the Lydian Quartet, whose members are on faculty at Massachusetts' Brandeis University, as well as composition faculty from the university and guest composers.

Lembit Beecher grew up in California, speaking both Estonian and English at home. Much of his work focuses on the themes of homeland, migration, and displacement that were threaded through his childhood. These themes are evident in works such as After Fires, a song cycle using text taken from conversations Beecher had with displaced wildfire victims in his hometown of Bonny Doon.

Beecher has served as the Music Alive composer-in-residence at the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the composer-in-residence at Opera Philadelphia. He has had commissions from the Juilliard String Quartet, tenor Nicholas Phan and violinist Augustin Hadelich, and the Orlando Philharmonic.

The Lydian Quartet will give the premiere of Beecher's work at Brandeis in the fall of 2024.

"We are thrilled to announce the winner of our 2022 Lydian Quartet Commission Prize!" wrote the quartet on social media. "Thank you to all composers who submitted your work, and huge congratulations to Lembit! We are so excited to work with you on a new quartet!"

Comprised of Andrea Segar, Julia Glenn, Mark Berger, and Joshua Gordon, the Lydian String Quartet is known for championing and commissioning new music. In recognition of this work, the quartet has received numerous Chamber Music America/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, grants from the Meet the Composer, Rockefeller Foundation, AT&T Jazz Programs in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. The group first launched the Lydian String Quartet Commission Prize in 2012.

Previous recipients include Kurt Rohde, Steven Snowden, Saad Haddad, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon.