Center for German and European Studies

Beethoven meets Climate Justice in E-Flat Major

Friday, September 13, 2024
12:00 - 1:00 pm
International Lounge, Usdan Student Center, Brandeis University Campus

About the Event

Picture of a statue of beethoven on the left and the Voyager space craft on the rightJoin Luisa Neubauer from Fridays for Future Germany and the Lydian String Quartet for a journey into the universe and back, and a conversation about climate justice on Friday, September 13 12-1:30pm in Usdan International Lounge on the Brandeis campus.

Refreshments will be served.

About the Speaker

Head shoto of Luisa Neubauer with a smileLuisa Neubauer is a youth climate justice activist and lead organizer of the German "Fridays for Future" climate movement. For over five years now, Luisa and Fridays for Future have brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets. In 2022 TIME Magazine included her among the "100Next" leaders. In „Neubauer vs. Germany“ she and others won a landmark constitutional court ruling against the German government (then led by Angela Merkel) in 2021, forcing the government to improve its climate law. She and others are now suing the (new) German government again. She has published three best-selling books on the climate crisis. One of them is  available in English: Beginning to End the Climate Crisis. A History of Our Future, published by Brandeis University Press in 2023. Her Ted Talks on climate action have been watched more than 4 Million times. Luisa Neubauer is currently completing a Masters degree in Geography. She is the host of the award-winning Podcast "1,5 Degrees". A Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for German and European Studies at Brandeis University this fall, she normally lives in Berlin. 

4 string instrument players standing with instruments in hand

From its beginning in 1980, the Lydian String Quartet (Clara Lyon and Julia Glenn, violins; Mark Berger, viola; Joshua Gordon, cello) has been acclaimed by audiences and critics across the USA and abroad for embracing the full range of the string quartet repertory with curiosity, virtuosity, and dedication to the highest artistic ideals of music making.

The Lydian String Quartet has performed extensively throughout the United States at venues such as Jordan Hall in Boston; the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; Lincoln Center, Miller Theater, and Weill Recital Hall in New York City; the Pacific Rim Festival at the University of California at Santa Cruz; and the Slee Beethoven Series at the University at Buffalo. Abroad, the Quartet has made appearances in France, England, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Armenia, and Taiwan.

The Lydians have long championed the commissioning, performing and recording of new works.  They enjoy working with young composers at the quartet’s Brandeis home as well as in mini-residencies at universities across the US. The members of the Lydian String Quartet are on the faculty of Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts.