The Miró Quartet celebrates its hometown of Austin, TX, in this music video performance of ‘Over the rainbow’ by Harold Arlen. The work is an arrangement of the song that featured in the film The Wizard of Oz, done by William Ryden.

Celebrating 30 years in 2025, the Texas-based quartet’s new album Home explores the the many meanings of ‘home’ through commissions by Kevin Puts and Caroline Shaw, paired with works by George Walker and Samuel Barber.

’This album is the culmination of a long and creative process of discovery, exploring our relationships with living composers as well as exploring and recording the existing core repertoire of American string quartet music,’ says the quartet.

’It has been an exciting musical journey that ultimately has brought us home as musicians in a new and special way. To us, Home represents stability and safety, yet human life is a journey of constant change, acquisition and loss. We travel away from our origins, and hopefully onwards towards our goals, our vision of true home. And as much as needing and having a home is a universal experience, leaving a home and starting life’s journey out on one’s own is also a pivotal moment of growth for every one of us.’

The Miró Quartet will feature in the June 2024 Session Report of The Strad.

Home is out on 10 May 2024 on Pentatone. Find out more here.

Best of Technique

In The Best of Technique you’ll discover the top playing tips of the world’s leading string players and teachers. It’s packed full of exercises for students, plus examples from the standard repertoire to show you how to integrate the technique into your playing.

Masterclass

The Strad’s Masterclass series brings together the finest string players with some of the greatest string works ever written. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s.

Calendars

American collector David L. Fulton amassed one of the 20th century’s finest collections of stringed instruments. This year’s calendar pays tribute to some of these priceless treasures, including Yehudi Menuhin’s celebrated ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri, the Carlo Bergonzi once played by Fritz Kreisler, and four instruments by Antonio Stradivari.