A Brilliant Offering of Beethoven

The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies is the only institution in North America devoted solely to the life and works of Beethoven. It was established in 1983 out of a donation of 75 first editions of Beethoven’s music by Ira F. Brilliant, a real-estate developer from Phoenix.

The center now holds the largest collection of first (250) and early 19th century editions (1,500) of Beethoven’s music outside of Europe. It has several original Beethoven manuscripts, more than 3,000 books on Beethoven, and a library of recordings and videos, among other items. It also maintains a comprehensive Beethoven bibliography on the Internet (https://www.music.sjsu.edu/Beethoven/index/caption.html)

The center loaned manuscripts, first editions, letters and a life mask of Beethoven to the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana for its Beethoven exhibit, earlier this year (Jan. 30-March 21), as part of the “Beethoven: Age of Revolution and Romance” project sponsored by the museum, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and several other organizations.