Miró Makes Its Way to Mary Craig 

The Austin-based Miró Quartet, long considered one of America’s most celebrated and dedicated string quartets, marks its 30th anniversary with a return to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s laudable chamber music series on January 19. The Miró, which in 2005 became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, continually finds inventive ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music, including the recent Emmy Award-winning multimedia project Transcendence. The quartet that frequently concertizes on the most prestigious stages heads to the Mary Craig Auditorium at the art museum – a most appropriate venue as the ensemble took its name and its inspiration from the Spanish surrealist artist Joan Miró. Sunday afternoon’s program features Haydn’s “Quartet in G major, Op. 77, No. 1”; George Walker’s “Lyric for Strings”; Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow”; and Beethoven’s “Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2.” Visit www.sbma.net.