Austin Chamber Ensemble Miró Quartet Performs Together Remotely — But With a Silly Twist

Many musicians — including the San Antonio Symphony — have found ways to perform together virtually while we shelter in place.

But Austin's Miró Quartet wasn't satisfied with recording yet another classical music Zoom call.

Instead, the musicians eschewed their usual instruments — violin, viola and cello — for something new: the Otamatone, a surprisingly versatile anthropomorphic Japanese musical toy.

While most Otamatone virtuosos stick to covering '80s pop songs, Miró took it to the next level, performing an excerpt from the second movement of Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 14, also known as Death and the Maiden, which the group posted on YouTube last Friday.


"The Miró Quartet wanted to find ways to stay connected as a group and also with its fans during the COVID-19 shutdown," the YouTube video's description reads. "But we wanted to do something a little different, a little more fun."

"These Japanese instruments were gifted to us by a fan, and while we had enjoyed playing on them, this period seemed to present a perfect time for us to hone our Otamatone skills — they're quite difficult to play! So here it is, in all its glory, our first, of hopefully many, Otamatone string quartet videos."

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