[1][2] In 1998 they were nominated for a Grammy Award,[3] and as of 2012 they were the best selling string quartet with over 1 million CDs sold in the US alone.
[4] According to the liner notes of their 1986 debut album, What if Mozart wrote "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", the quartet was formed specifically for that album in response to RCA's desire to record string quartet arrangements of mostly-secular Christmas music in a classical (Mozart) style.
Following the What if Mozart... series, little was heard from the quartet until 1993, when they released an album featuring the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" as its title track, which subsequently was part of the debut album on the label of the cellist's music publishing company, Mona Lisa Sound.
Their most recent releases include an all-Beatles CD, The Off-White Album, as well as All Zeppelin.
As of 2018, their current roster consisted of Regis Iandiorio, first violin, Abe Appleman, second violin, Richard Maximoff,[6][7] viola and John Reed, cello, all of whom except Appleman are original members.