The Miró Quartet is an internationally performing professional classical string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

 based in Austin

Austin

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. The group is the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Texas and its members are on the faculty of the Butler School of Music

Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music

The Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music is located on the eastern side of The University of Texas at Austin.With over 100 faculty members and more than 750 students, the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music ranks among the top 3% in the country....

. Its members are Daniel Ching, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

; Sandy Yamamoto, violin; John Largess, viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

; and Joshua Gindele, cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

.

The Quartet was founded in 1995 by four students at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...

. In 1997, two members left the group and were replaced by two new members who have remained in the group until this day.

Within the first five years of its founding, it had won first prizes in all the competitions it entered, including the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition

Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition

Begun in South Bend, Indiana, USA in 1973, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition is the largest chamber music competition in the world, and the only with separate Junior and Senior Divisions...

 (1996), the 6th Banff International String Quartet Competition (1998) and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award (2000). It was awarded Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award in 2005 and was also the first ensemble to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant in that same year.

The Miró Quartet regularly tours throughout North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. It is a frequent performer in major American festivals such as the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival

The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival is a six week long summer Festival of chamber music held annually in July and August and located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was founded in 1972 and presented its first series of concerts in 1973. Well-known musicians and young performers appear each season in...

, Chamber Music Northwest

Chamber Music Northwest

Chamber Music Northwest is an American non-profit organization in Portland, Oregon that is dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. The organization's main presentation is an annual five-week summer festival that occurs during the months of June and July...

, La Jolla Summerfest and Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. It has collaborated with noted musicians including Pinchas Zukerman

Pinchas Zukerman

Pinchas Zukerman is a world-renowned violinist, violist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his ongoing 45-year career has seen him perform with the world's best-known orchestras and record over 100 works...

, Joshua Bell

Joshua Bell

Joshua David Bell is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.-Childhood:Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's father is the late Alan P...

, Midori, Leif Ove Andsnes

Leif Ove Andsnes

Leif Ove Andsnes is a Norwegian pianist and an ardent champion of the works of Edvard Grieg.-Biography:He studied with Jiří Hlinka at the Bergen Music Conservatory and made his debut in Oslo in 1987, in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival with the Oslo Philharmonic in 1989, and in the United States...

, Jon Kimura Parker

Jon Kimura Parker

Jon Kimura Parker, OC is a Canadian pianist.- Biography :He was born in Vancouver, Canada, the son of Keiko Parker and the nephew of Edward Parker.He appeared with the Vancouver Youth Orchestra when he was five...

, Eliot Fisk

Eliot Fisk

Eliot Fisk is an American classical guitarist.-Biography:Fisk was the last direct pupil of Andrés Segovia and is the holder of all reproduction rights to Segovia's music, given to him by Segovia's wife, Emilia...

 among many others.

Its discography includes a recording of George Crumb's Black Angels which was awarded a Diapason d'Or award in 2004. The Quartet also recorded music of Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

 and Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

 with cellist Matt Haimovitz

Matt Haimovitz

Matt Haimovitz is an Israeli-born cellist now based in the United States and Canada. He mainly plays a cello made by Matteo Gofriller in 1710.-Family, musical education and early career:...

 in 2003, which later received a mention in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

in February of 2009. Their latest recording was released in 2005 of all six opus 18 quartets of Beethoven.