By Staff, Concordia College

Oct. 11, 2017:  Bronxville residents Lawrence Dutton and Elizabeth Lim-Dutton will receive the President's Award for Excellence in Service to the Community at Concordia College's 36th Annual Community Dinner on October 25. The event recognizes outstanding civic leadership and celebrates the college's strong partnership with the community.

The Duttons have given Concordia College and the entire community much to be grateful for. These busy professionals (he the violist of the world-renowned Emerson String Quartet and she an in-demand violinist) have shared their time, energies, and prodigious musical gifts without reserve while raising their sons, Luke, Jesse, and Samuel.

Anyone who has attended the routinely sold-out performances of Concordia's Hoch Chamber Music Series is familiar with Larry's role as artistic director, whether he's sharing informed insights into the music or performing himself. Larry's role in making the series what it is today--a true treasure of Concordia College and the community--cannot be overstated. Along with the generosity and vision of the late Mary C. Hoch and her husband, Jim, and the energy and expertise of Kathleen Suss, executive director of Concordia Conservatory, Larry's talent, time commitment, and connections with fellow world-class artists have created a series that brings top talent to Concordia's own impeccable acoustic space, Sommer Center for Worship and the Performing Arts, at ticket prices that are accessible to all.

Larry and Liz often perform together at Hoch Chamber Music Series concerts, where their joy in music--and joy in bringing their music home to their community--is palpable. "I've played all over the world," said Larry, "but this is special. The intimacy and acoustics of Sommer Center create a musical experience as it's meant to be: unamplified and free from the distractions of modern life. I especially love that so many children attend; the series provides a great opportunity to expose our kids to the arts and still be home by bedtime. Geographically, we're close to all that New York City has to offer, but getting there can be hard for busy people, and hearing music at this level so close to home is a rare convenience." 

The couple's additional civic leadership includes Liz's service on the Bronxville School's Performing Arts Committee and on the programming arms of both the PTO Board at Chapel School and the board of directors of the Friends of the Bronxville Public Library. Liz and Larry each served on the advisory board at Concordia Conservatory, and Larry has been a tremendous resource in finding and recruiting faculty for the conservatory. In addition, the Duttons are founding members of Trinity Church in Rye, a church plant of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. 

The community dinner will feature a personal retrospective from Ara and Jan Guzelimian, longtime friends of the Duttons. Ara is the provost and dean of The Juilliard School and was formerly head of the Aspen Music Festival, where Larry and Liz first met. The program will also include a musical tribute by conservatory faculty members Marija Ilic and John Klibonoff.  

Lawrence Dutton has collaborated with many of the world's great performing artists, including Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leon Fleisher, Paul McCartney, Sir James Galway, Andre Previn, Yefim Bronfman, Misha Dichter, Joshua Bell, and Emanuel Ax. He has also performed as guest artist with numerous chamber music ensembles such as the Juilliard and Guarneri Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

Since 2001, Mr. Dutton has been the artistic advisor of the Hoch Chamber Music Series at Concordia College. He has been featured on three albums with the Grammy-winning jazz bassist John Patitucci and tours regularly with cellist Ralph Kirshbaum and violinist Robert McDuffie. With the Beaux Arts Trio, he recorded the Shostakovich Piano Quintet, Op. 57, and the Fauré G minor Piano Quartet, Op. 45, on the Philips label. His Aspen Music Festival recording with Jan DeGaetani for Bridge records was nominated for a Grammy award. For BRAVO television, he recorded works by Stravinsky and Hindemith.

Mr. Dutton has appeared as soloist with many American and European orchestras, including those of Germany, Belgium, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Colorado, and Virginia. He has also appeared as guest artist at the music festivals of Aspen, Santa Fe, Ravinia, La Jolla, and Chamber Music Northwest and collaborated with the late Isaac Stern in the International Chamber Music Encounters both at Carnegie Hall and in Jerusalem. From 2008 to 2010, he performed at the Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea.

Currently professor of viola and chamber music at Stony Brook University, the Manhattan School of Music, and Mercer University in Georgia, Mr. Dutton began violin studies with Margaret Pardee and began studying viola with Francis Tursi at the Eastman School. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at The Juilliard School, where he studied with Lillian Fuchs, and he has received honorary doctorates from Middlebury College in Vermont, The College of Wooster in Ohio, Bard College in New York, and The Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. Mr. Dutton exclusively uses Thomastik Spirocore strings. Viola: Samuel Zygmuntowicz (Brooklyn, NY 2003). 

Elizabeth Lim-Dutton began violin studies at the age of three and performed in her first student recital at the age of five. She started attending the Aspen Music Festival at the age of eleven and subsequently followed her teacher, Dorothy DeLay, to New York at the age of fourteen. Studies were at the Professional Children's School, The Juilliard School (BM), and the Yale School of Music (MM).

Ms. Lim performs regularly with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. She has toured the US as concertmaster for the New York City Opera National Company and has performed as a member of the New Haven Symphony, the Stamford Symphony, and the New York Pops, and she has performed with the New York City Ballet Orchestra. As a member of Steve Reich and Musicians and the Steve Reich Ensemble since 1992, touring and performances have been in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The diverse musical life of a violinist in New York City has allowed Ms. Lim to record close to one hundred television and radio commercials and over sixty movie soundtracks and to perform in dozens of Broadway productions, most recently as concertmaster of Matilda, the Musical.

It has also allowed Ms. Lim to perform for and admire the artistry of musicians such as Barbra Streisand, Natalie Cole, Jimmie Page, Robert Plant, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Diana Ross, Natalie Merchant, Tony Bennett, Sting, and Bruce Springsteen, among many others. Solo recordings have been on the ESS.A.Y label for Philharmonia Virtuosi and on the Nonesuch label for Steve Reich's The Cave, City Life, Three Tales, Daniel Variations, and Music for 18 Musicians, which won a Grammy Award in 1998 for Best Performance by A Small Ensemble. Violin: Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (Paris, 1864).

Pictured here:  Larry Dutton and Elizabeth Lim-Dutton.

Photo courtesy Elizabeth Lim-Dutton