Miró Quartet

PROGRAM

Hailed by the New York Times as possessing “explosive vigor and technical finesse”, the dynamic Miró Quartet, one of America's highest-profile chamber groups enjoys its place at the top of the international chamber music scene. Now in its second decade, the quartet continues to captivate audiences and critics around the world with its startling intensity, fresh perspective, and mature approach.

Founded in 1995 at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Miró Quartet met with immediate success winning first prize at the 50th annual Coleman Chamber Music Competition in April 1996, and taking both the first and grand prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition two months later. Earning both the First Prize and the Piéce de Concert Prize at the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Miró Quartet also won the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 2000. In 2005, the Quartet was the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. They received the Cleveland Quartet Award that year as well.

Recent Miró Quartet seasons have included concerts in some of the world's most important concert venues, such as Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonic's Kammermusiksaal, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Italy’s Festival Internazionale Quartetto d'Archi Reggio Emilia, the Dresden Music Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Palacio Real de Madrid. The Miró Quartet has been Quartet-in-Residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two in New York City, and was named to the Distinctive Debut Series of Carnegie Hall, which in conjunction with ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) provided debut appearances in Cologne, Stockholm, Brussels, London, Vienna, Amsterdam and Athens. In recent seasons, the ensemble has collaborated with such artists as Leif Ove Andsnes, Joshua Bell, Eliot Fisk, Lynn Harrell, Midori, Jon Kimura Parker and Pinchas Zukerman. The Miró Quartet is also a favorite of numerous summer festivals having appeared regularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Summerfest, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and the White Pine Festival.

Highlights of the Miró Quartet’s 2008-09 season included a critically acclaimed return performance at Carnegie Hall as well as performances in Denver, Dallas, Rochester, Ft. Worth, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Vancouver among many others. The 2009-10 season includes tours of Europe, Malaysia and Japan as well as performances across the US, Canada and the Caribbean. The Quartet will also return to New York to finish the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Beethoven quartet cycle at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall.
The Quartet has been heard on numerous national radio broadcasts, including National Public Radio's Performance Today and Minnesota Public Radio's Saint Paul Sunday. Internationally, it has been featured on radio networks across Europe, Canada and Israel. The Quartet has also been seen on ABC's World News Tonight, A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, and on various programs of the Canadian Broadcasting Company. At the invitation of Isaac Stern, the Quartet performed in a live broadcast at the Jerusalem Music Center in Israel and was featured in the PBSTV "American Masters" documentary: "Isaac Stern: Life's Virtuoso".

In addition to a mastery of the standard repertoire, the Quartet maintains a fierce devotion to contemporary music. The Miró Quartet has commissioned and performed music by such composers as Brent Michael Davids, Leonardo Balada, Kevin Puts, Chan Ka Nin, Dominic Maican, David Schober, and Gunther Schuller.

The Miró Quartet serves as the Faculty String Quartet-in-Residence at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. Its members - violinists Daniel Ching and Sandy Yamamoto, violist John Largess, and cellist Joshua Gindele - teach private students and coach chamber music there, while maintaining an active international touring schedule. With the Miró on campus, the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin is one of only a small group of universities whose faculties include a world-class string quartet. Deeply committed to fostering the next generation of musicians, the quartet was on faculty at the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music at Kent State University before their current position in Austin. On short notice, the Quartet filled in for both Isaac Stern and Henry Meyer, leading master classes in Lucerne, Switzerland and Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland. In the summers, the Miró Quartet has taught and performed at the Sunflower Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Lake Tahoe Music Festival, and the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. The Quartet gives frequent master classes at many institutions around the world.

The Miró Quartet has released several recordings, most recently the Op. 18 quartets of Beethoven on the Vanguard Classics label. The Quartet has recorded music by George Crumb and Rued Langgaard - the performance of Crumb's Black Angels receiving international acclaim, including the French "Diapason d'Or". The Quartet plays Mendelssohn's final string quartet (Op. 80) and Schubert's Quintet in C, with celebrated cellist Matt Haimovitz, on an Oxingale CD titled "Epilogue". In 2009, the Miró Quartet began an exciting new live recording venture in collaboration with Naxos and Longhorn Records. The first recording featuring quartets by Antonín Dvor?ák and Kevin Puts will be released in the Fall of 2009.
The Miró Quartet is named for the Spanish artist Joan Miró, whose surrealist works — with subject matter drawn from the realm of memory and imaginative fantasy —are some of the most original of the 20th century.

www.miroquartet.com