Hook ‘Em, Miró

The auditions are over, the votes are in, and UT School of Music has a new resident string quartet: The Miró Quartet. The eight-year-old ensemble, which takes its name from Spanish surrealist Joan Miró, who dealt in memory and imaginative fantasy, edged out the Amati Quartet, the Miami Quartet, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, and the Ying Quartet for the new position. The Miró — which consists of Daniel Ching, first violin; Sandy Yamamoto, second violin; Joshua Gindele, cello; and John Largess, viola — made an international name for itself in 1998, when it won the Banff International String Quartet Competition. It has since won the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, performed across the U.S. and Europe, been heard frequently on National Public Radio, and been quartet in residence at Kent State University and the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival. In September, the ensemble will move down from New York, where they have been in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two, and start leading the School of Music’s chamber music program, teaching its violin, viola, and cello students and coaching its chamber music ensembles. They will continue to tour internationally.

Leslie to Help Run PAC

Well, no, not that Leslie — Charles M. Leslie. The UT Performing Arts Center‘s assistant director of production has been named to succeed Neil Barclay in the position of associate director. In his new post, Leslie will oversee marketing, ticketing, patron services, and programming. Barclay left the PAC in February to become the executive director at the African-American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh.

Return of the Return of the Dead Prezzes

Don Toner won’t let those dead presidents rest in peace. Last month, the Austin Playhouse producing artistic director brought back Cal Coolidge, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon with a revival of Larry L. King‘s 1996 comedy The Dead Presidents Club, in which the four former commanders-in-chief bunk together in the afterlife. The production ended a five-week run on June 22, but at the performances on the closing weekend, Toner informed the audiences that the show would be back for three weeks starting Aug. 1. For information, call 476-0084.

This article appears in June 27 • 2003.

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