Praised in The New York Times as having
“everything one wants in a quartet: a rich, precisely balanced
sound, a broad coloristic palette, real unity of interpretive
purpose and seemingly unflagging energy,” the Miami String Quartet
has established its place among the most widely respected quartets
in America. For over twenty years, their diversity in programming,
poise in performance, keen sense of ensemble and impeccable
musicality has made the Miami String Quartet one of the most
sought after quartets in chamber music today.
Winners of the 2000 Cleveland Quartet Award presented by Chamber
Music America, and Chamber Music Society Two ensemble of the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 1999-2001, the Miami
String Quartet has been in residence at Hugh A. Glauser School of
Music at Kent State University since 2004. They were Quartet in
Residence at the Hartt School in Hartford, from 2003 to 2009.
Other previous residencies include Florida International
University and the New World School of the Arts in Miami, where
the group was founded in 1988.
The Miami String Quartet has appeared extensively throughout the
United States and Europe. Highlights of recent seasons include
performances in New York at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and
the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as engagements in
Boston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco,
Seattle, St. Paul, and its own concert series in Palm Beach,
Florida. International highlights include appearances in Bern,
Cologne, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Istanbul, Lausanne, Montreal,
Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Paris. The Quartet has
recently toured with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
and they perform frequently for the Philadelphia Chamber Music
Society.
The Miami String Quartet is in demand at many of the country’s
great festivals. For many years, the Quartet has served as
resident ensemble at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, and
has appeared at Chamber Music Northwest, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia,
the Brevard Festival, Rutgers Summerfest, Music from Angel Fire,
Virginia Arts Festival – where it has been the resident ensemble –
and at the festivals of La Jolla, Santa Fe, and Pensacola.
The ensemble’s interest in new music has led to many commissions
and premieres. In 2009 the Quartet and the
Kalischstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio premiered Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s
Septet, a work co-commissioned by a dozen organizations including
the 92nd St. Y, Kennedy Center, Chamber Music Society of Detroit,
Kravis Center, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Friends of
Chamber Music (Portland), Chamber Arts Society of Durham, and
Denver Friends of Chamber Music. In 2008, they and the Imani Winds
premiered Roberto Sierra’s Concierto da Camera,
commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest, Stanford University, and
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Also in 2008, the ensemble
performed the premiere of Joan Tower’s Angels (String
Quartet No. 4), commissioned by Music from Angel Fire, and
premiered Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakers for baritone
and string quartet, commissioned by Bravo! Vail festival in
Colorado. Other recent commissions include a new work by composer
Annie Gosfield, commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music
Festival; a joint commissioning by the Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center and the Virginia Arts Festival of a piano quintet
by Bruce Adolphe; and a new work by composer Stephen Jaffe
commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.
In 2000, Miami String Quartet premiered Augusta Read Thomas’s Invocations.
In the 1997-98 season, the Quartet presented the American
premieres of Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 by Peteris Vasks, which met
with enormous acclaim and were subsequently recorded; Vasks’
Quartet No. 3 has since become a signature piece for the ensemble.
Among other new music highlights are a commissioning grant from
Chamber Music America for a piano quintet from Maurice Gardner,
world premiere performances of the quartet Whispers of
Mortality by Bruce Adolphe, a quartet by Philip Maneval,
Maurice Gardner’s Quartet No. 2 and Concertino as well as
premieres of Robert Starer’s Quartet Nos. 2 and 3, and David
Baker’s Summer Memories.
The Miami String Quartet’s first recording, the first two quartets
of Alberto Ginastera, was released in 1994. Their second CD,
Saint-Saëns Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 and Faure’s String Quartet, was
released in the fall of 1997 on BMG Conifer. The aforementioned
1999 BMG recording of Peteris Vasks’ Quartet Nos. 1, 2, and 3
garnered unqualified praise on both sides of the Atlantic. Azica
Records released their recording of Zwilich’s Septet, with the
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, in 2014. Their recording of Joan
Tower’s quartets Angels and Incandescent was
released in April 2016.
In 1992, the Miami String Quartet became the first string quartet
in a decade to win First Prize of the Concert Artists Guild New
York Competition. The Miami String Quartet has also won
recognition in competitions throughout the world; as laureate of
the 1993 Evian Competition, 1991 London String Quartet
Competition, and as the 1989 Grand Prize Winner of the Fischoff
Chamber Music Competition.
[June 2016]