At the suggestion of Canin's husband, a pianist, the quartet took its name from Antonie Brentano, who has been proposed as Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved".
[1] The quartet made its public New York City concert debut in February 1994.
[3] Kannen left the quartet in May 1998, following his wife's injury in an automobile accident, to care for his young child.
The quartet has since worked together with Kannen as guest cellist, such as in concerts in March 2008 at the Pennsylvania State University[4] and in September 2014 at Amherst College.
Lee made a cameo appearance in the film as a fictionalised version of herself, as the cellist of a fictitious piano trio led by Wallace Shawn.