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While still in his teens, Lowell Textile Institute graduate and real estate developer Ira F. Brilliant ’43 began to admire the artistic and humanitarian works of Ludwig van Beethoven. This admiration blossomed into a passion that’s lasted well beyond his college years.
“The more I read about his life the more I admired what he accomplished,” says Brilliant, a retired real estate developer living in Phoenix, Ariz. “I developed a growing wish to own something that he owned, such as a letter.”
So began a hobby that led to the largest holding of Beethoven works in the western hemisphere. The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies , of which Brilliant was also the long time director, was born when Brilliant donated his extensive collection of first editions of Beethoven’s music to San Jose State University in 1983.
“When I had accumulated 75 first editions, it occurred to me that rather than keeping them in a closet at home it made more sense to donate them to a university,” says Brilliant. “I was in California and discussed the idea with the dean of arts. When I casually mentioned that there was no Beethoven research entity in all America and my donation could trigger one, he agreed heartily and so it happened. Next year will be its 20th anniversary.”
The Center has 350 first editions and 2,300 early 19th century editions of Beethoven’s music, along with his manuscripts, critical works about him, and even a lock of his hair. The director and curator of the Center have facilities available for doctoral students and scholars of Beethoven’s work and life. For more information contact www2.sjsu.edu/depts/beethoven.