Arnold Steinhardt has been the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet for 42 years.

NPR: Audubon String Quartet Lawsuit Mixes Music, Business

"Escher did a lot of drawings, but the ones we were thinking about were the ones with lots of birds or fish, " says Adam Barnett-Hart, the group's affable first violinist.

NPR: Opening Day With The Escher String Quartet

Earlier in the month, the writer was at Carnegie Hall for an all-Brahms program by the mighty Emerson Quartet, and he also went to the Manhattan School of Music to attend the final event at the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, led by the longtime first violinist of the Juilliard Quartet.

NEWYORKER: The Power of Four