Eugene Lehner

When he was 13, the composer Béla Bartók heard him play, and arranged for him to pursue his studies formally.

At the Royal Conservatory of Music in Budapest, he studied the violin with Jeno Hubay and composition with Zoltán Kodály.

Lehner was a violist with the Kolisch Quartet from 1926 until 1939, performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 39 years (the only player to be invited to join without an audition by Serge Koussevitzky), and continued teaching chamber music at the New England Conservatory of Music and Boston University well into his retirement.

Lehner was widely regarded as one of the greatest living experts of the interpretation of chamber works by Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, and Béla Bartók, having been involved in the premieres of several of such works during his time with the Kolisch Quartet.

When the Juilliard Quartet was formed, they spent a summer in intensive coachings with Lehner.