IF YOU GOWhat: String Theory, featuring Miró String Quartet and pianist Gloria Chien.When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday; discussion of art and music at 5:30 p.m.Where: Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View.Admission: $25 in advance, $30 at the door; $5 discounts to series donors and Hunter members.Phone: 267-0968.Email: stringtheorycms@gmail.com.Website: www.stringtheorymusic.org.
The String Theory concert series returns for its third spring installment on Thursday with the dynamic sounds of the Miró String Quartet and pianist Gloria Chien. The concert begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Hunter Museum of American Art, a co-sponsor of the series with Lee University.
A preconcert discussion on art and music will start at 5:30 p.m., led by the Hunter's chief curator, Ellen Simak, and the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera's music director emeritus and Lee University artist-in-residence Robert Bernhardt. They will explore works from the Hunter collection that relate to the music featured in String Theory.
Hailed by The New York Times as possessing "explosive vigor and technical finesse," the Miró Quartet remains one of the nation's highest-profile chamber groups.
The ensemble was founded in 1995 at the Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio. Its media appearances include American Public Media's "Performance Today," ABC's "World News Tonight" and A&E's "Breakfast With the Arts."
In 2005, the Miró String Quartet was the first ensemble to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, along with the Cleveland Quartet Award the same year.
Chien, String Theory's founder and artistic director, is an internationally acclaimed pianist and assistant professor of music at Lee. She was picked by the Boston Globe as one of the Superior Pianists of the year "... who appears to excel in everything."