It has received numerous awards, including four Grammys and membership in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

In February 2011, the group received the NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award for its outstanding contributions to recorded classical music.

As of 2022, the quartet's members are violinists Areta Zhulla and Ronald Copes, violist Molly Carr, and cellist Astrid Schween.

The quartet was founded by Juilliard School president William Schuman and violin faculty member Robert Mann in 1946.

[1] The original members were Mann and violinist Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer and cellist Arthur Winograd.

[2] Around the time of its public and recording debuts, the Juilliard Quartet quickly established itself as a premier American ensemble on the international level.

[13] The quartet plays a wide range of classical music, and has recorded works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bartók, Debussy and Shostakovich, among others, while also promoting more contemporary composers such as Elliott Carter, Ralph Shapey, Henri Dutilleux and Milton Babbitt.

[14] It has performed with other noted musicians, such as Aaron Copland, Glenn Gould, Benita Valente and also (in its early days) the scientist Albert Einstein.