Miró Quartet
Daniel Ching, violin | William Fedkenheuer, violin | John Largess, viola | Joshua Gindele, cello
“Throughout, the Miró Quartet played with explosive vigor and technical finesse.”
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The Quartet recorded the complete Beethoven cycle in chronological order over 15 years which was released in 2020 and Gramophone called "sublime."
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The Miró Quartet has served as the Faculty Quartet in Residence at UT Austin's Butler School of Music since 2003 mentoring artists in the Young Professional String Quartet. Passionate about the future of chamber music, the Miró appears regularly at the Norfolk Music Festival and has given master classes at universities and conservatories throughout the world.
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The Miró works with some of the preeminent composers of our time including Pulitzer Prize-winners Caroline Shaw and Kevin Puts, as well as Tamar-kali, David Shiff, David Schikele, and more.
The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated string quartets, praised as "furiously committed" by The New Yorker and recognized for its "exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity" by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Marking 30 years together in 2025, the GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin, TX and thriving in the area’s storied music scene, the Miró Quartet takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.
During their 30th anniversary season, the Miró Quartet appears at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Clark Library in Los Angeles, Music@Menlo, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, Chamber Music Detroit, Chamber Music Sedona, Chamber Music Tulsa, String Theory at the Hunter and Hunter Museum of American Art, Music Toronto, International Classical Concerts, BIG ARTS, Blanco Performing Arts, Forbes Center for the Performing Arts, and more. As part of their 30th anniversary season, the Miró Quartet will also be launching new collaborations with saxophonist and actor Steven Banks and bass-baritone Joseph Parrish.
In May 2024, the Miró Quartet released its second album on Pentatone, Home, praised for “breathtaking performances” (Strings Magazine) of two new commissions by Kevin Puts and Caroline Shaw, as well as works by George Walker and Samuel Barber.The album "...has made a home to welcome any receptive listener... its playing radiates familiarity with the music beyond the notes." (The Strad). The Miró Quartet toured the album’s program throughout the United States.
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Having independently released many celebrated recordings for a variety of global labels, the Miró Quartet was nominated for a 2024 GRAMMY® Award for Best Choral Performance for House of Belonging, created in collaboration with Austin-based choral group Conspirare. The Miró Quartet also produced an Emmy Award-winning audiovisual multimedia project titled Transcendence, a documentary centered around a performance of Franz Schubert’s Quartet in G Major on rare Stradivarius instruments, available on live stream, CD, and Blu-ray. The Miró Quartet’s past projects have included touring and recording with pianist Lara Downes for Here on Earth, the premiere of a new version of Kevin Puts’ Credo with the Naples Philharmonic, and collaborations with composers Steven Banks, Tamar-Kali, and Gabriel Kahane, as well as soprano Karen Slack.
Formed in 1995, the Miró Quartet was awarded first prize at several national and international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. Deeply committed to music education, members of the Quartet have given master classes at universities and conservatories throughout the world, and since 2003 the Miró Quartet has served as the quartet-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music. In 2005, the Miró Quartet became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant.
The Miró Quartet took its name and inspiration from the Spanish artist Joan Miró, whose Surrealist works—with subject matter drawn from the realm of memory, dreams, and imaginative fantasy—are some of the most groundbreaking, influential, and admired of the 20th Century.
Visit miroquartet.com for more information.
August 2024 – Please do not edit without permission.
Videos
Programs & Repertoire
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PROGRAM I – AMERICAN ALBUM: VOICES OF HOME
Samuel Barber: Quartet No. 1 in B minor
George Walker: “Lyric for Strings”
Caroline Shaw: “Microfictions [Vol. 1]” (2021), commissioned for the Miró Quartet
*****
Kevin Puts: “Home” (2019), commissioned for the Miró Quartet
American Songbook Suite: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, “Fascinating Rhythm”, “Over the Rainbow”PROGRAM II – MIRÓ STORIES (30TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON)
Franz Joseph Haydn: Quartet in G major, Op. 77, No. 1
Alberto Ginastera: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26
*****
Claude Debussy: Quartet in G minor, Op. 10PROGRAM III – THE LAST DAY
No intermission, salon style concert with speaking between all selectionsJoseph Haydn: Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2, “The Fifths” [selections]
Jake Heggie: “The Last Day” (2024), commissioned for the Miró Quartet
W.A Mozart: Quartet in C major, K. 465, “Dissonance” [movement 2]
Franz Schubert: Quartet in D minor, D. 810, “Death and the Maiden” [movement 2, Variations]
Maurice Ravel: Quartet in F major [movement 2]
Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 [movement 4]
Fiddle Tune Encore: “Orange Blossom Special” -or- TBD
American Songbook Selection: “Over The Rainbow” -or- TBDCOLLABORATIVE PROGRAMS
PROGRAM I – BRAHMS QUINTETS
with Masumi Per Rostad, violaJohannes Brahms: Viola Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88
*****
Johannes Brahms: Viola Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111PROGRAM II – TRIBUTE TO BENNY GOODMAN AND THE BUDAPEST QUARTET
with David Shifrin, clarinetLudwig van Beethoven: Quartet in G major, Op. 18, No. 2
Alan Shulman: “Rendezvous with Benny”
David Schiff: Three Swing Arrangements: “A Smooth One”, “How am I to Know”, “Temptation Rag”
*****
W.A. Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581PROGRAM III (SPRING 2025) - MUSICAL MYSTICS
A program of music for Saxophone and String Quartet with Steven Banks and the Miró QuartetHildegarde of Bingen: O Virtus Sapientiae
Caroline Shaw: Other Song, And So
Ludwig van Beethoven: Heiliger Dankgesang from String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
Steven Banks: What’s Old is New (new commission)
*****
Osvaldo Golijov: The Dreams and Prayers of Issac the Blind“My current obsession as an artist is in exploring the concepts of timelessness and ultimate truths like interconnectedness. The act of creating this piece will be a meditation on the concepts explored by the other works on this program; wisdom, the passage of time, faith, communion, transience, and others that I am sure to find along the way. The set of songs at the beginning of the program allows the saxophone to explore its vocal abilities. Golijov’s Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind draws influence from Klezmer music. The Yiddish word klezmer derives from two Hebrew roots: klei (“vessel” or “instrument”) and zemer (“song”). In my piece, the saxophone and its string counterparts will sing. There may be references to the spiritual songs of my youth, and perhaps from the singing styles of the other composers on the program, among other possibilities.”
-Steven Banks, composer“What’s old is new is ever ever told…”
-Other Song, Caroline Shaw -
PROGRAM I – AMERICAN ALBUM: VOICES OF HOME
Samuel Barber: Quartet No. 1 in B minor
George Walker: “Lyric for Strings”
Caroline Shaw: “Microfictions [Vol. 1]” (2021), commissioned for the Miró Quartet
*****
Kevin Puts: “Home” (2019), commissioned for the Miró Quartet
American Songbook Suite: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, “Fascinating Rhythm”, “Over the Rainbow”PROGRAM IIA – GINASTERA QUARTETS
Alberto Ginastera: Quartet No. 1, Op. 20
Alberto Ginastera: Quartet No. 3, Op. 40 with Kiera Duffy, soprano
*****
Alberto Ginastera: Quartet No. 2, Op. 26PROGRAM IIB – HAYDN, GINASTERA, & DEBUSSY
Joseph Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op. 71, No. 2
Alberto Ginastera: Quartet No. 1, Op. 20 -OR- Ginastera: Quartet No. 2, Op. 26
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Claude Debussy: Quartet in G minor, Op. 10PROGRAM III (FALL 2025)
The Miró Quartet Holiday Program! A festive evening of original arrangements of 12 of our favorite living composers’ favorite Holiday Tunes…with other holiday favorites arranged for string quartet. Composers include Clarice Assad, Alex Berko, Michael Begay, Anna Clyne, Reena Esmail, Jake Heggie, Hyung-ki Joo, Gabriel Kahane, Joel Love, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Jeff Scott, Derrick Skye, and Michi Wiancko.PROGRAM IV (SPRING 2026) – TWO TITANS AT TWO HUNDRED
Franz Schubert: Quartet in G major, D. 887 (June 1826)
*****
Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130, with the “Grosse Fuge” finale from Op. 133 (March 1826)
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Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (1826)COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMS
PROGRAM I – AMERICAN QUINTETS
with Masumi Per Rostad, viola
Nokuthula Ngwenyama: Viola Quintet, “Primal Message”
Michael Begay: New commission
Andrea Casarrubios: “Anthem”, new commission
*****
Antonín Dvořák: Viola Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 97 “American”PROGRAM II -MUSICAL MYSTICS
A program of music for Saxophone and String Quartet
with Steven Banks and the Miró QuartetHildegarde of Bingen: O Virtus Sapientiae
Caroline Shaw: Other Song, And So
Ludwig van Beethoven: Heiliger Dankgesang from String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
Steven Banks: What’s Old is New (new commission)
*****
Osvaldo Golijov: The Dreams and Prayers of Issac the Blind“My current obsession as an artist is in exploring the concepts of timelessness and ultimate truths like interconnectedness. The act of creating this piece will be a meditation on the concepts explored by the other works on this program; wisdom, the passage of time, faith, communion, transience, and others that I am sure to find along the way. The set of songs at the beginning of the program allows the saxophone to explore its vocal abilities. Golijov’s Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind draws influence from Klezmer music. The Yiddish word klezmer derives from two Hebrew roots: klei (“vessel” or “instrument”) and zemer (“song”). In my piece, the saxophone and its string counterparts will sing. There may be references to the spiritual songs of my youth, and perhaps from the singing styles of the other composers on the program, among other possibilities.”
-Steven Banks, composer“What’s old is new is ever ever told…”
-Other Song, Caroline ShawPROGRAM III (SPRING 2026)
Collaborative Program with soprano Karen Slack, featuring a new commission by Tamar-kali based on texts from the women of the Harlem Renaissance, along with works for quartet and voice by Margaret Bonds, William Grant Still, and Florence Price.Samuel Barber: String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11 [I. Molto allegro e appassionato]
William Grant Still: Songs of Separation (arr. Largess)
Tamar-kali: New Work
Barber: Quartet in B minor, Op. 11 [II. Molto adagio; III. Molto allegro]
****
George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Florence Price: Quartet No. 2 in A Minor [III. Juba. Allegro]
Margaret Bonds: Creek-Freedman SongsPROGRAM IV - “SINGING THE BIG BAND BLUES”
A program of music for Baritone and String Quartet with Joseph Parrish and the Miró QuartetRising star baritone Joseph Parrish and the Miró Quartet explore the sound and swing of the Big Band Era in new arrangements for strings and voice by composer Christopher Armstrong. The program is inspired by Benny Goodman’s many and various vocal collaborators such as Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Mildred Bailey and Ella Fitzgerald. Songs include “Begins the Beguine”, “I cried for you”, “A night in Tunisia” among others.
