Miro String Quartet
Hailed by the New York Times as possessing “explosive vigor and technical finesse,” the dynamic Miro 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 Miro 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
Piece de Concert Prize at the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition,
the Miro 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 Miro 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 Miro 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 Miro 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 Miro 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 Miro Quartet has commissioned and
performed music by such composers as Brent Michael Davids, Leonardo Balada,
Kevin Puts, Chan Ka Nin, Dominic Maican and David Schober, and Gunther Schuller.
The Miro 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 Miro 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 Miro 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 Miro 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
Miro Quartet began an exciting new live recording venture in collaboration with
Naxos and Longhorn Records. The first recording featuring quartets by Antonin
Dvorak and Kevin Puts will be released in the Fall of 2009.
The Miro Quartet is named for the Spanish artist Joan Miro, 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.
