For 38 years, the string studies program in the NIU School of Music was defined by two words: Vermeer Quartet. The world-renowned chamber group began its residency at NIU in 1970 and retired this year.

The group’s retirement capped off a career that included performances in the world’s greatest concert halls, praise from the most highly regarded voices of the music press and a handful of Grammy-nominated recordings.

Some might say it left impossibly big shoes to fill. To find a quartet worthy of taking its place, the School of Music conducted an international search.

After months of sorting through applications, conducting interviews and listening to performances, NIU hired the Avalon Quartet, a stellar group of Generation-X musicians who don’t want to fill Vermeer’s shoes so much as step in with a pair of their own.

Unlike Vermeer, who began its NIU residency only a year after its formation as a quartet, Avalon arrives with an already impressive back story: Formed in 1995 at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the group went on to win the support of legendary violinist Isaac Stern, who presented them at concerts in Jerusalem and at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall.

The Avalon Quartet’s debut CD, “Dawn to Dusk,” was released by the Channel Classics label in 2001 and won the Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award for one of the best chamber music recordings of 2001.

As with virtually all chamber music groups (including Vermeer), the Avalon Quartet’s personnel has changed over the years.

Violinists Blaise Magniere and Marie Wang are founding members, while violist Anthony Devroye and cellist Cheng-Hou Lee joined the group later.

In addition to being younger than Vermeer, the Avalon Quartet is also more diverse: not one of them is American-born. Magniere hails from France, Wang was born of Chinese descent in Canada, Devroye was born in Belgium and raised in the U.S., and Lee is a native of Taiwan who moved to the U.S. in high school.

The four members, all from far-flung corners of the globe, share a common passion for playing and an uncanny propensity for higher education: they hold 11 degrees and diplomas between them, and Lee has almost completed his doctoral studies at the New England Conservatory of Music.

In their new position at NIU, the quartet will teach private lessons and coach student string quartets. But just as constant research must complement a biology or communications professor’s teaching load, steady performance is essential for an effective faculty quartet-in-residence.

The Avalon Quartet will carry on Vermeer’s tradition of regularly playing free concerts in the Music Building’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.

“The university community is in for a treat, as the Avalon Quartet impressed us all with their sublime artistry, insightful perspectives and delightful personalities,” said Paul Bauer, Director of the School of Music, in an interview with the NIU Office of Public Affairs.

The NIU community has its next opportunity to witness the quartet’s mastery in concert at 8 p.m. on Oct. 10 in the Music Building’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.

The eclectic program for the evening features music by French composers George Onslow, Henri Dutilleux and Maurice Ravel.