The Avalon String Quartet has been in residence at Northern Illinois University since 2007. They perform four programs a year in Chicago and DeKalb, and serve as faculty at the university. Previously, they taught and performed at Indiana University South Bend from 2003 to 2007.

The quartet studied with the Juilliard Quartet at the Juilliard School from 2001-2003, where they also served as teaching assistants. Prior to Juilliard, they worked with the Emerson Quartet at the Hartt School of Music and with the Vermeer Quartet at Northern Illinois University. In the 1999-2000 season, the ensemble served as the first Ernst Stiefel Foundation String Quartet in Residence at the Caramoor International Music Festival Center for Music and Art. The members of the Quartet have worked with major artists including Henry Meyer, Jaime Laredo, Leon Fleischer, Peter Wiley, Gilbert Kalish, and Michael Tree, and members of the Orion, Cleveland, La Salle, Juilliard, and Tokyo string quartets.

Formed in 1995 at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Quartet’s numerous honors include top prize at the 2000 International Music Competition of the ARD in Germany, First Prize, the Channel Classics Prize, and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival Prize at the 1999 Concert Artists Guild Competition., and the Grand Prize at the 1998 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The ensemble has also won awards the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the 1999 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. In 1997, the Quartet participated in Isaac Stern’s Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall. As a result, Mr. Stern invited the Avalon Quartet to perform in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem and in March 2000 presented the ensemble’s Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall. The Quartet made its New York debut on the Alexander Schneider Series at the New School in 1998.

The Quartet’s live performances and conversation have been featured on Chicago’s WFMT-FM, New York’s WQXR-FM and WNYC-FM, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, Canada’s CBC, Australia’s ABC, ARD of Germany and France Musique. The Channel Classics Records released the Avalon Quartet's debut CD, Dawn to Dusk, in 2001. The recording, including the Ravel and the Janacek Second Quartets, was received with much critical acclaim. The Quartet's CD was honored with the 2002 Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award for best chamber music recording.