It seems like anybody would jump at the chance to take a quick trip to France or England and experience life overseas for awhile especially if they were paid for it. But in the case of cellist David Soyer of the Guarneri Quartet, excursions across the Atlantic have become as commonplace as a drive to the grocery store.

It’s very satisfying [to play overseas], but travel has gotten very tedious after all these years, Soyer said. It’s no great thrill to fly to London or Paris anymore because it’s been so many times.

I don’t know if we enjoy traveling, but we enjoy performing.

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More than 30 years of performing in the same string quartet with the same three men could grow stagnant, but what keeps musicians like Soyer doing what they do best is the music.

Soyer said the Quartet, which will be performing at 8 p.m. tonight in Shryock Auditorium, continues to travel the world and perform because the music always brings something new and challenging for the members.

[Classical music] has so many facets that one never tires of it. You may come up with an idea for a different tempo or someone may come up with a new idea that strikes you differently than it did in the last 50 or 25 years, he said. There’s always something new.

That’s one thing about the repertoire that is so great is that it’s like a huge gold mine and you keep digging in and finding nuggets.

Some of the nuggets the four string players will be polishing up for their performance are selections from Franz Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in D Major, Bela Bartok’s Quartet No. 6 and Claude Debussy’s Quartet in G Minor.

After more than 30 years together, the quartet, named after a violin-making family of Cremona, Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, is the longest-running quartet in the world.

I guess we’ve just been so busy that we never thought of not doing it, Soyer said.

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Though there are no definite measurements set to regard someone as the best at something, the Guarneri Quartet’s longevity as well as its performing proficiency have earned the recognition that would make it look like the best in terms of American chamber music ensembles.

The quartet received the prestigious Award of Merit from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in 1992, becoming the only quartet ever to be given such an honor.

In 1982, then New York Mayor Ed Koch recognized the Quartet’s peerless performing abilities when he presented it with the first New York Seal of Recognition.

Awards and recognition are great accomplishments for any musical group, but it’s what the Quartet has given to each audience for the past 30 years that keeps fans asking for more.

And having so many fans all over the world brings the Quartet to a variety of stages.

You sometimes find yourself playing to large audiences. For instance, we played in a huge auditorium in Tel Aviv that seats 2,500 people, and then we might come the next day to do something that seats 300 people, Soyer said.

Soyer also said the different sizes of the venues bring about different ambiances to each performance. Some of the atmosphere is created by the audience which is not normally attributed with contributing to a classical performance.

There’s a difference in feel to these places certainly a difference in acoustics, he said. There’s a difference in audience response, which is a very tangible thing. The audience is a big part of the performance.

FACTOID:Tickets for the Guarneri Quartet performance are $15.50 and $13.50. For information, call (618) 453-2787.