Miró Quartet Announces 30th Anniversary Season Highlights In 2024-2025
As part of their milestone season, the Miró Quartet will also be launching new collaborations with saxophonist and actor Steven Banks and bass-baritone Joseph Parrish.
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 05, 2024
The Miró Quartet officially marks their 30th anniversary season with appearances 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, Chamber Music Hamilton, Texas Cellos, Northwestern University, BIG ARTS, Blanco Performing Arts, the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts at James Madison University and more.
As part of their milestone 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. BBC Music Magazine raved, "Altogether, this is a thoroughly compelling and thought-provoking collection of works, delivered with strong emotional commitment and finesse."
On Monday, September 30, 2024, the Miró Quartet appears at Lee University's Presidential Concert Series with clarinetist David Shifrin and pianist Gloria Chien as part of the chamber music series String Theory at the Hunter. For this program, they will present works by Mozart, Bernstein, George Walker, Alan Shulman and more. On the following day, the group will reprise their performance at the Hunter Museum of American Art for String Theory's Season Sixteen opening concert on Tuesday, October 1, 2024.
Miró Quartet returns to Music@Menlo on Saturday, October 5, 2024 for an engagement at the Spieker Center for the Arts in Atherton, California, where they will perform Kevin Puts' Home, a composition written for the ensemble to paint a poignant picture of all that's encompassed in the concept of "home." Inspired by the plight of Syrian refugees fleeing to Europe, this piece was nominated as an arrangement for quartet and chorus for a 2024 GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance. The program will also include Haydn's String Quartet op. 77, no. 1 and Debussy's String Quartet op. 10.
From Friday, October 18 to Sunday, October 20, 2024, the Miró Quartet appears for three performances with David Shifrin, presented by Chamber Music Tulsa. They bring a program of works by Beethoven, Mozart and Alan Shulman, as well as Caroline Shaw's Microfictions [Volume 1], to the Renaissance Square Event Center on October 18, to the Westby Pavilion at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on October 19, and to the John H. Williams Theater at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on October 20. Written in collaboration with the Miró Quartet by teleconference during the pandemic lockdowns, Shaw's piece is a set of six miniature musical stories inspired by the paintings of the quartet's artist namesake, Joan Miró, and by the short science fiction of T.R. Darling - the original "microfictions" referenced by the title. As the composer shares: "Each movement is brief but vivid, with a distinct sonic profile ... one's interpretation of the stories and of the music can be varied - there is no one right way to connect the sounds or images or ideas. Rather, I hope that the words create an environment for curious listening and an invitation to imagination."
On Sunday, October 27, 2024, Chamber Music Oklahoma presents the Miró Quartet in a program of Brahms at Christ the King Catholic Church in Oklahoma City.
They go on to appear at the Jane Mallett Theatre in Toronto for a concert featuring works by Haydn, Caroline Shaw and Debussy, presented by Music Toronto on Thursday, November 14, 2024. They reprise the works by Haydn, Ginastera, and Debussy at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in London, Ontario on the following day, Friday, November 15, 2024, for a performance presented by The Jeffery Concerts.
On Sunday, November 17, 2024, Chamber Music Hamilton presents the Miró Quartet in a program of Debussy, Ravel and Caroline Shaw at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in Hamilton, Ontario.
On Thursday, December 19, 2024, Fortas Chamber Music Concerts presents Miró Quartet in a performance at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in Washington D.C. For this program, the ensemble will perform works including Haydn's Op. 77 No. 1, Beethoven's Op. 131 and Caroline Shaw's Microfictions [Volume 1]. "This program centers around the new string quartet written for us by composer Caroline Shaw, Microfictions [Volume 1]," Miró artists said of the selected works. "Its evocative mixture of spoken text and instrumental sound inspires the listener to hear the images and feel the textures in the music. Framing this work on each side with Haydn and late Beethoven both puts Shaw's bold new style into context and challenges the audience to hear these two more familiar voices in a deeper and more complex way."
Miró Quartet returns to their home base in Texas on Friday, December 20, 2024 for a performance at the Altstadt Brewery in Fredericksburg. Alongside cellist Joseph Kuipers, they perform at TexasCellos SESSIONS in a program including Boccherini's Night Music of the Streets of Madrid and Schubert's Cello Quintet.
On Sunday, January 12, 2025, the ensemble appears for another performance with David Shifrin at the Sedona Performing Arts Center, as part of the presenter's subscription series. This program represents a dynamic celebration of both classical and jazz clarinet, featuring Alan Shulman's Rendezvous with Benny, a work paying tribute to the chamber music contributions of the "King of Swing," Benny Goodman. Shifrin and the Miró Quartet will reprise the program on Thursday, February 6, 2025 at the Christensen Performance Hall in Sanibel, Florida, presented by BIG ARTS Classical Series Circle, and on Saturday, May 3, 2025 at the Seligman Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills, MI, presented by Chamber Music Detroit.
International Classical Concerts presents Miró Quartet in their 20th anniversary season at the Palm Desert Community Presbyterian Church in California on Saturday, January 18, 2025. For their next engagement, Miró Quartet appears at the Uptown Blanco Ballroom in Blanco, Texas for Blanco Performing Arts' Season 15: Jubilee concert on Saturday, February 8, 2025.
On Friday, April 11, 2025, the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts presents Miró Quartet in a performance at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. For this program, they will perform selections from Haydn's Op. 76, No. 2, Mozart's "Dissonance," Schubert's "Death and the Maiden," Beethoven's Op. 59, No. 2, Jake Heggie's The Last Day and more.
On Wednesday, May 14, 2025, Miró Quartet appears at Gates Concert Hall, Newman Center for the Performing Arts in Denver, CO in a program presented by Denver Friends of Chamber Music. Alongside saxophonist Steven Banks, the ensemble will perform Banks' own work What's Old is New - commissioned by Denver Friends of Chamber Music - as well as works including von Bingen's O Virtus Sapientiae, Caroline Shaw's Other Song, And So, Beethoven's Heiliger Dankgesang and Osvaldo Golijov's Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. Miró ends the season with a concert at UCLA's Clark Library on Sunday, May 18, 2025, featuring a program of Brahms.
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