Musicians
Miró Quartet
The Miró Quartet is increasingly recognized as one of America's brightest and most exciting young chamber groups. Since winning First Prize at the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 2000, the Miró Quartet has captivated audiences around the world, dazzling listeners with its youthful intensity and mature interpretations. Formed in the fall of 1995, the Quartet met with immediate success, winning the First Prize at the 50th annual Coleman Chamber Music Competition in April 1996, and the following month taking both the First and Grand prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.This year the quartet was appointed Faculty String Quartet at The University of Texas at Austin. Starting in September 2003, the members of the Miró Quartet -violinists Daniel Ching and Sandy Yamamoto, violist John Largess, and cellist Joshua Gindele - will teach and coach chamber music there, while continuing their active international touring schedule. With this appointment, The University of Texas at Austin joins an elite group of institutions whose faculties include a world-class string quartet.The Miró enjoys an active international touring schedule and performs in some of the world's most recognized concert venues. Highlights from this past season included performances in Boston, New York City, Washington D.C., and cities in Germany. The Miró Quartet was Quartet-in-Residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two and was named to the Distinctive Debut Series of Carnegie Hall, which included a Weill Recital Hall performance as well as debut appearances in Cologne, Stockholm, Brussels, London, Vienna, Amsterdam and Athens. The ensemble made its Tokyo debut in 2001 in a concert benefiting the victims and families of the September 11th tragedy.The Quartet has been heard on countless national radio broadcasts, including those of National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and Minnesota Public Radio's "Saint Paul Sunday." Internationally, the Miró has been featured on radio networks across Europe, Israel and Canada. The Quartet has also been seen on NBC's "Today Show," ABC's "World News Tonight," as well as 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 recent American Masters Documentary "Isaac Stern: Life's Virtuoso."The members of the Quartet maintain a strong dedication to the next generation of musicians and were on the faculty of the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music at Kent State University, where they taught private students and coach chamber music. The Miró was the Resident String Quartet of Kent/Blossom Music, Kent's annual summer chamber music festival in cooperation with the Cleveland Orchestra. The Quartet also continues to make regular appearances at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and is the Quartet-in-Residence at the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival, and Aritists-in-Residence at the Lake Tahoe Music Festival. On short notice, the Quartet filled in for both Henry Meyer and Isaac Stern, leading master classes in Switzerland and Germany. In 2001, the Quartet teamed up with the Grand Canyon Music Festival and composer Brent Michael Davids to form the Native American Composers Apprentice Project, which teaches Native American students how to read and write music. The Miró Quartet also serves on the Advisory Council of Community MusicWorks of Providence, Rhode Island, an organization dedicated to enriching the lives of inner city youths and families through classical music.The Quartet's unyielding commitment to contemporary music has led to the commission and performance of music of such composers as Brent Michael Davids, David Schober, Chan Ka Nin, Maurice Gardner and Ezra Laderman.The Quartet has recorded the music of Gunther Schuller and Rued Langgaard for Bridge Records and is currently working on a recording of George Crumb's Black Angels, also for release on that label. The Miró Quartet have also recorded Mendelssohn's last quartet, and Schubert's Quintet in C with cellist Matt Haimovitz, for a release in 2004 on the Oxingale label.The Miró Quartet is named after 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. Additional information about the Quartet may be found here.
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