In 1977 he co-founded with Yehudi Menuhin the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad. He was the director from 1977 to 2008.
He has four children with his Italian wife Benedetta Origo: Antonio, Katia, Giovanna and Simonetta.
He was a student and friend of famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
His son, Antonio Lysy is a famous cellist who, from 2012, also teaches Cello at UCLA.
His wife, Benedetta Origo, is the daughter of Antonio Origo, the illegitimate son of an Italian Marquise and of famous British writer Iris Origo. Benedetta now lives in her parents' Tuscan estate of "La Foce", near Montepulciano, Tuscany.