Violist Doris Lederer and cellist Clyde Shaw think of themselves as winners. As musicians who have been playing together for more than 30 years in the highly respected Audubon String Quartet, they have had stellar careers, the kind most conservatory students can only dream of.

And yet, when a bitter lawsuit was filed against them in 2000 by the group’s former first violinist, Lederer and Shaw lost their house, their 20-plus-year residency at Virginia Tech, a portion of their retirement funds, their freedom for 18 months to perform music in public without permission, and, worst of all, the ownership of their musical instruments.

The lawsuit, which claimed the violinist had been wrongfully dismissed from the quartet, gruelingly took place for six years across two states, dragging both sides through the type of calamitous muck that seems unimaginable in the refined realms of classical music. Major newspapers covered the proceedings. Musicians and artists on both sides of the case watched and cringed and worried.

Ultimately the violinist, David Ehrlich, won a settlement of $611,000, and the other three members of the quartet -Lederer, Shaw and violinist Akemi Takayama, filed bankruptcy.

But the financial and material devastation as well as the heartache, the sleepless nights, the tears and the personal and professional outrage, do not add up to a wipeout in the minds of these two consummate artists.

The victory, say Lederer and Shaw, who are married, is that the Audubon quartet survived. Their lives may have been in danger of falling apart, but the quartet, which was founded in 1974, was unshakeable.

“How can it be that one of the greatest forms of music can be so difficult, with four human beings, four big egos, some bigger than others?” asked Lederer, sitting at the kitchen table of a house she and Shaw have rented in Blue Hill for part of the summer. “There’s got to be something to keep you going. We’ve been through difficult times. People asked: How can we still play together? Because we won. We have a victory here.”

“Now it is such a pleasure to look at our colleagues and say, ‘It’s great to play with you.’ It’s liberating to know that it’s working,” said Shaw, a founding member of the quartet.

The Audubon, comprising Lederer, Shaw, Takayama and violinist Ellen Jewett, will kick off the concert season at Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Blue Hill with works by Haydn, Shostakovich and Smetana at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 22, and Saturday, June 23.

Although Lederer has taught and played at the school for the past six years and will be in residence through July, this is the first time the quartet has appeared at the prestigious summer camp that seasonally draws serious string students from Juilliard, Yale, Oberlin, Cleveland and other leading music schools.

With the lawsuit debacle behind them, Lederer and Shaw, who are both in their 50s and have three grown sons, have begun a new chapter in their lives. A private collector bought their instruments and has lent them back to the musicians on a 10-year plan. Lederer has made several recordings, teaches privately and recently landed a position at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Va., where the couple lives and where Shaw is a full-time faculty member. The conservatory recently appointed the Audubon String Quartet as its first quartet-in-residence.

Whereas the quartet once took up most of their lives – with as many as 200 international concerts a year and substantial university support – it now is balanced with other professional pursuits. These days, the group performs about 20 concerts a year, including long-standing summer commitments with the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y., and the Music at Gretna summer music festival in Mt. Gretna, Pa.

The adjustment has been slow and hard, says the couple, and even talking about the past – the lawsuit as well as years of simmering resentments – can still bring tears to Lederer’s eyes.

For all the melancholy the memories can evoke, however, the musicians have a keen sense of emancipation, which they say is both musical and personal. They eliminated the title “first violinist” from the group to symbolize equality among the four players and to acknowledge the balance they also hope to bring to the quartet’s sound. (The two violinists alternate the first chair in programs.) Lederer, in particular, feels her own playing has become more “open” than in past years.

“Everybody has asked us if we have contracts or legal understandings with each other now, and the answer is no, we don’t want to,” said Lederer.

“I can’t play Mozart in a legal relationship,” added Shaw.

While the music world may not yet have calculated the lessons to be learned from the havoc of the complicated lawsuit, the experience may eventually serve as a wake-up call to artists who presumably can apply the best of their creativity to settle disputes without threatening the well being of art and, by extension, the audience’s access to it.

Far from wanting to rehash the details of darker days – or “major philosophical disagreements,” as they call it – Lederer and Shaw are quietly acclimating to a renewed sense of mission and triumph.

“I appreciate the quartet now for the first time in my life,” said Lederer. “I realize I’m so lucky to be playing with three strong people. We’re unzipped now. We don’t hold back.”

“It’s certainly wonderful to land on both feet after what we’ve been through,” said Shaw.

“All eight feet,” Lederer corrected.

The Audubon String Quartet will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 22, and Saturday, June 23, at Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Blue Hill. For information, visit www.kneiselhall.org, or call 374-2811.