Miró Quartet To Perform Complete Beethoven String Quartets in Twelve Livestreamed Concerts

For their first major project since the coronavirus outbreak, the Miró Quartet will come together in-person to perform all sixteen Beethoven string quartets and the Grosse Fuge live for online audiences via the streaming platform OurConcerts.live. Since mid-March, members of the Quartet have been apart, isolating separately at home with their families. Upon reuniting for this series, they will follow strict protocols in their daily lives to mitigate the risk of virus transmission amongst themselves.

Presented by the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, this 12-evening, subscription-based concert series is scheduled for July 16 to August 8-Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. PT. Following each livestream, the performance will remain online for on-demand viewing for 24 hours for ticket holders. The complete cycle will be broadcast live from a private performance space modeled after Tuscan architecture in the Quartet's home city of Austin, TX, and the video feed will be professionally produced in real time, with multiple camera angles and high-quality sound. The cycle takes the place of both the originally planned, in-person Miró Quartet performances this month on Orcas Island in Washington State, and the planned annual August Festival. The new series also serves to continue the worldwide celebration of Beethoven's 250th birthday that was interrupted by the pandemic. See below for a complete schedule of webcasts.

About the project, the Quartet said:

"Beethoven's world was one of uncertainty, sweeping and violent societal change, and revolution and war. On a personal level, he continuously faced unsolved health crises of deafness and an unknown disease that would ultimately claim his life. Miraculously, Beethoven transformed his personal struggles into music of great power, anger, and determination, as well as great peace, longing and hope. In times of global uncertainty and personal upheaval, music can be one of the most powerful means to unite us all, give us inspiration to live differently, and comfort us in our struggles.

"Over the last two decades, the Miró Quartet has been fortunate to perform this complete cycle in venues around the world, and it is undeniable that sharing this great musical journey has been one of the most impactful experiences of our lives. The Miró Quartet's relationship with the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival is also a long and close one, based both on deep artistic partnerships and warm personal friendships. Together we have always challenged ourselves to push existing artistic boundaries, and we are excited to team up now to present our first-ever live-performed and live-streamed Beethoven String Quartet Cycle. Our hope is to share the live experience of this greatest of all musical journeys with a wider and more diverse audience than has ever been possible for us before."

Tickets are available via OurConcerts.live beginning Thursday, June 25 at 10:00 a.m. PT and priced $20 for individual concerts, $90 for tickets to six of the concerts, and $120 for access to the complete series, which also includes an "OICMF Encore Evening" livestreamed concert on August 14. This Festival finale features performances by Founder and Artistic Director violinist/violist Aloysia Friedmann, Artistic Advisor pianist Jon Kimura Parker, past Festival artists, and musicians scheduled to perform during the 2021 Festival, interspersed with curated archival video footage from past Festival seasons.

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival Founder and Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann said:

"We are thrilled to present the Miró Quartet, livestreamed to the world. To perform the sixteen Beethoven Quartets within four weeks is a mammoth undertaking and an epic journey. Our OICMF audiences and viewers internationally will be in the hearts of these amazing performing artists. A project of this magnitude could not have been accomplished without the great outpouring of support and love from so many. I'm grateful to all. For twenty-three years, we have dedicated ourselves to the highest standards of musical excellence, brought to life through visionary, creative, and innovative programming. It is our goal to present 'Classical Music with a View,' and this summer our view is unique and exceptional."

The Miró is the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival's Quartet-in-Residence and has previously performed a full cycle of the Beethoven string quartets on Orcas Island in 2014. The ensemble has also surveyed these complete works at Tokyo's Suntory Hall and Chamber Music Tulsa, and will conclude a year-long cycle at Chamber Music Northwest with streamed performances in July 2020.

This upcoming livestreamed series comes on the heels of the ensemble's Beethoven string quartet box set for PENTATONE, which was released earlier this season and praised for "bringing fresh ideas to music the world has known for centuries" (Philadelphia Inquirer).The Quartet began recording the Beethoven string quartets in 2004, starting with Op. 18. Four additional volumes were released between then and 2018. The box set released by PENTATONE in the fall includes these recordings as well as the three works that had yet to be recorded: String Quartets No. 12 in E-flat major, Op. 127; No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132; and No. 16 in F major, Op. 135.

Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Miró Quartet―violinists Daniel Ching and William Fedkenheuer, violist John Largess, and cellist Joshua Gindele―is one of America's most celebrated and innovative string quartets. The Quartet has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, and is featured in Transcendence, an Emmy Award-winning documentary and multimedia project centered around a performance of Schubert's Quartet in G major on rare Stradivarius and Guarneri instruments. Based in Austin, TX, and thriving on the area's storied music scene, the Miró takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.

In addition to its Complete Beethoven String Quartets, released as a boxset on PENTATONE in the fall of 2019, the ensemble's other recordings are Schubert Interrupted featuring the composer's "Death and the Maiden" quartet and song with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, and The Miró Quartet Live! with Kevin Puts's Credo, composed for the Miró, and Dvořák's String Quartet in F major.

Formed in 1995, the Miró was awarded first prize at several competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and also received the Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Committed to music education, members of the Quartet have given master classes at universities and conservatories throughout the world; and since 2003, the Miró has served as faculty string quartet-in-residence at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas, Austin. In 2005, the Quartet became the first ensemble ever to be awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

OurConcerts.live is a specialized streaming service and technology company that facilitates meaningful connections between artists, organizations and audiences through high-quality virtual artistic experiences. OurConcerts.live works with presenters and producers to provide a fully-configurable, secure platform that allows performers to share their art from almost any setting - whether from home, a studio, or a venue with a professional, multi-camera crew.

For further information, visit the web sites of the Miró Quartet (miroquartet.com), Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (oicmf.org), and OurConcerts.live (ourconcerts.live).

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