Detroit, MI - The Miami String Quartet, winner of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, will be holding a master class at Wayne State University on Tuesday, May 14 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wayne State students as well as students from area high schools will be participating in the master class. The master class will be held in the Schaver Music Recital Hall located in the Old Main building on the corner of Cass Avenue and Hancock. Admission is free of charge and open to the public.

The Miami String Quartet is among the most widely respected quartets in America and was praised by The New York Times as having "everything one wants in a quartet: a rich, precisely balanced sound, a broad coloristic palette, real unity of interpretive purpose and seemingly unflagging energy." Quartet members Ivan Chan, violin, Cathy Meng Robinson, violin, Chauncey Patterson, viola and Keith Robinson, cello are currently in Residence at Florida International University and have recently completed two years as resident ensemble of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two. As recipient of the 2000 Cleveland Quartet Award, the Quartet was invited to perform in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Austin, Cleveland and New York City during the 2001-2002 season.

The Quartet has performed extensively nationally and internationally including performances in New York at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Paul, New Orleans, as well as appearances in Paris, Bern, Cologne, Lausanne, Istanbul and Montreal. The Quartet is also in high demand at many of the country's festivals. The Miami Sting Quartet has served as resident ensemble at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, as well as appearances at the Chamber Music Northwest, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Rutgers Summerfest and the La Jolla and Pensacola festivals.

The ensemble has been sought after for many commissions and premieres. Most recent was the premiere of Augusta Reed Thomas' "Invocations" in March 2000.Recent commissions include a grant from Chamber Music America for a piano quintet from Maurice Gardner, world premiere performances of the quartet Whispers of Mortality by Bruce Adolphe, as well as Maurice Gardner's Quartet No. 2 and Concertino, Quartet Nos. 2 and 3 by Robert Starer and David Baker's Summer Memories.

For more information on the Miami String Quartet Master class, call the WSU Department of Music at 313.577.1795. Wayne State University Department of Music is celebrating 83 years of excellence in music. The Department's faculty includes renowned jazz artists, composers and members of the internationally acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra. WSU alumni have gone on to careers in distinguished orchestras, ensembles and as soloists and music educators the world over.