The Composers String Quartet, quartet in residence at Columbia, performed the world première of Professor Richard Wilson’s “String Quartet—1977” in Skinner Hall. Wilson's quartet commemorated the beginning of the third century of Phi Beta Kappa, founded on December 5, 1776, at the College of William and Mary. It was written at the invitation of Vassar's Mu Chapter of the academic honor society, the first chapter, in 1898, at a women's college.

The Composers String Quartet, founded in 1965 by former Vassar professor Matthew Raimondi and Anahid Ajemian, performed in the Mozart Festival in Adelaide, Australia, inaugural concerts at the Centre Georges Pompidou and premièred Beethoven’s Opus 135 in Calcutta, India.