In Search of the Curtis String Quartet

It has been a serious quest of mine over the past year and a half of so to find out who this quartet was and what it was about. I married into the family in 1993 and so Orlando Cole became my father-in-law. He was the original and only cellist of the Quartet and was unique in that regard. I had the privilege of knowing him until his death in January 2010. I saw him become progressively weaken until he passed on with his family around him under the care of our local hospice caregivers. They've not been given their due "in the literature" which I intend to rectify. But in documenting the case for them I have to find out who they were, what they did, how they came together, and how they came to stay together for so very long. This blog is my way of communicating that quest.