Dec. 19: The Miró Quartet Celebrates 30th Anniversary in Concert at The Kennedy Center’s Fortas Chamber Music Concerts

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The Miró Quartet Celebrates 30 Years at
The Kennedy Center’s Fortas Chamber Music Concerts

Performing String Quartets by Haydn and Beethoven 
Bookend Caroline Shaw’s Microfictions [Volume 1]

Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 7:30pm 
The Kennedy Center Terrace Theater | Washington D.C.

“explosive vigor and technical finesse”  – The New York Times

“exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity” – Cleveland Plain Dealer

miroquartet.com
 

Washington, D.C. (November 13, 2024) – On Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 7:30pm at the Terrace Theater, The Kennedy Center presents the GRAMMY®-nominated Miró Quartet as part of its Fortas Chamber Music Concerts series. The program centers around Caroline Shaw’s work Microfictions [Volume 1], which was composed for Miró and performed by the quartet in its world premiere in 2021. The concert also features Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor and Haydn’s String Quartet in G Major.

Miró Quartet shares, “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, as well as challenges the audience to hear these two more familiar voices in a deeper and more complex way.”

Caroline Shaw’s Microfictions [Volume 1], written in collaboration with the Miró Quartet by teleconference during the pandemic lockdowns, is a set of six miniature musical stories inspired by the paintings of the quartet’s artist namesake, Joan Miró, and 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.” The Quartet premiered Microfictions at Shriver Hall Concert Series in Baltimore in 2021. The work is also featured on Miró’s new album Home, released on PENTATONE in May 2024. At only 30, Shaw became the youngest ever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013.

Celebrated as one of America’s leading string quartets, Miró marks its 30th anniversary in 2025. In their three decades performing together, the ensemble has been featured on prestigious stages worldwide, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin, TX, where they have built a thriving presence on the area’s vibrant music scene, the quartet has shown a rare talent for engaging audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.

During their 30th anniversary season, the quartet also appears at 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 milestone season, the Miró Quartet will also be launching new collaborations with saxophonist and actor Steven Banks and bass-baritone Joseph Parrish.

Program Details
The Kennedy Center Presents Foster Chamber Music Concerts: Miró Quartet
Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Terrace Theater | Washington D.C.
Tickets: $57.50
Link: https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/fortas/2024-2025/miro-quartet/

Program:
Joseph Haydn – String Quartet in G Major, Op. 77, No. 1
Caroline Shaw – Microfictions [Volume 1]
Ludwig Van Beethoven – String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

Daniel Ching, violin
William Fedkenheuer, violin
John Largess, viola
Joshua Gindele, cello

About Miró Quartet
The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated and dedicated string quartets, having been labeled by The New Yorker as “furiously committed” and noted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer for its “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity.” For over twenty-five years the Quartet has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin, TX, and thriving on the area’s storied music scene, Miró takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music. In their 2023-24 season, the Miró Quartet embarked on a new performance and recording project with pianist Lara Downes. Here on Earth features musical depictions of planet Earth, its evolution, and the lives of its inhabitants, with works spanning a century of cultural shift that begins with Darius Milhaud’s La Création du Monde, performed in a new arrangement for piano and string quartet. Upcoming performances include the premiere of a new version of Kevin Puts’ Credo with the Naples Philharmonic, as well as performances for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and Premiere Performances in Hong Kong.

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 has served as the quartet-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music. In 2005, the Quartet became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. Having released many celebrated recordings, Miró recently produced an Emmy Award-winning multimedia project titled Transcendence. A work with visual and audio elements available on live stream, CD, and Blu-ray, Transcendence encompasses philanthropy and documentary filmmaking and is centered around a performance of Franz Schubert’s Quartet in G major on rare Stradivarius instruments. Miró records independently and makes its music available on a global scale through Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube. The Miró Quartet took its name and its 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.

Learn more at https://miroquartet.com.

About the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts
The 2024-2025 season will mark the 43rd season of the Kennedy Center’s chamber music series, established in the 1981-1982 season by Marta Istomin, who, at the time, was the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Director. The Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, established as part of the Terrace Concerts during the 1983-1984 season, began a vibrant new life in the 1999-2000 season when – in addition to the generous contributions of loyal supporters of the Fortas Fund – income from a major gift to the Fortas Fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas, became available to support the artistic programming. The Fortas Chamber Music Concerts series is named for the former Supreme Court Justice, who was instrumental in the creation of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and later, the Terrace Theater. The Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees established the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund in 1982 for the support of concerts in the Terrace Theater, and for the further development of the musical programs he envisioned. Major support for Fortas Chamber Music Concerts continues to be provided by this fund.

Fortas Chamber Music Concerts is under the artistic direction of violinist Jennifer Koh, who was appointed to the position in December 2022. Koh follows the late Joseph “Yossi” Kalichstein, who served as the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Advisor for Chamber Music and Artistic Director of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts from 1997–2022.

Through its history the series has featured frequent appearances by artists such as the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, Takács, Dover, and Alban Berg Quartets; early music ensembles Anonymous 4, Trio Medieval, and the Waverly Consort; performances by Eugene Istomin, Emanuel Ax, Edgar Meyer, Susan Graham, Isaac Stern, and Yo-Yo Ma; as well as many other distinguished artists and ensembles that actively perform and commission new works.

Learn more at https://www.kennedy-center.org/

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