The appointment of the Brodsky Quartet as resident string quartet at the RSAMD for a three-year period is a coup for the academy. The cult string quartet are not only a group with a stellar international reputation. They are one of a handful of string quartets that have come to represent an elite in redefining the nature and function of a string quartet ensemble.

Each have their own niche, identity and function within that cadre, and each are revered as an exemplar of their type. The mighty handful includes the American Kronos Quartet, with their visionary approach to repertoire and performance, and the British Arditti Quartet, whose staggering virtuosity and uncompromising adherence to the most challenging, cutting-edge repertoire have secured awe and adulation in equal measure.

The Brodskys, formed in Manchester in 1972, are different again. Though, like all string quartets of this calibre, they can equally champion the mainstream repertoire - their recording of Shostakovich's 15 string quartets is acclaimed - the Brodskys have become most associated with the specialism of what we might call cross-border collaborations.

Their projects with musicians from non-classical genres have brought them world renown and a massive audience. Their collaborators have included jazz pianists and composers Dave Brubeck and Django Bates, Icelandic singer Bjork, Paul McCartney and, most consistently, Elvis Costello. They have become associated with broader arts activities, collaborating with dance and theatre companies, including Theatre Complicite. There is also an announcement imminent from their agents of a new collaboration with a major rock artist. There is a rumour that it might be Sting, which would make sense, given the singer's recent foray across the border into the classical world.

But what brings the Brodskys to Glasgow? What will be their function at the RSAMD? And how can the academy attract and, even more, afford them? The Brodskys, who launch their new residency next Friday with a mainstream programme of string quartets by Barber and Ravel, are not exactly an off-the-peg group. They are not four for a pound.

Influence, clout, authority, naked ambition and highly-placed contacts lie behind the successful enterprise to draw the Brodskys to Scotland. That might sound like the background to the signing of the Brodskys, but in fact the background is the story. There is no secret to academy principal John Wallace's hunger for the internationalisation of his conservatory. As one of the best-known trumpeters in the world, and a musician of enormous influence, he has expressed that hunger many times in the past few years. But there is a new edge to that expression. Wallace has a new right-hand man in James (Jim) Gourlay, vice-principal, music, at the RSAMD. Both men are Fifers. Gourlay, less of a public face than Wallace, is one of the best known and most authoritative figures in the music business. For many years he was principal tuba in the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and one of the leading soloists on his instrument. In his final gigs before moving into the administrative and educational side of the business he was playing in the Vienna Philharmonic and at Bayreuth. He is said to have an awesome range of contacts and influence, and is the progenitor of the Brodskys' project. Further inquiries elicit sufficient information to be able to suggest that Wallace and Gourlay are working to develop a strategy for a big push on the internationalisation of the academy. The hooking of the Brodskys is just the latest in a series of tactical moves to implement that strategy.

One of the team pulling the strands together is Nicolas Zekulin, performance and events manager at the RSAMD. "We are very aspirational here," says Zekulin, in his Canadian burr. "We're already one of the top five academies in Europe. We see ourselves as becoming one of the best in the world. But we are disadvantaged because of geography. We're not sufficiently exposed to top international guest artists who will work with our students.

"In London, Paris and Berlin these guest artists are resident in those cities, and therefore they take up teaching posts. In Glasgow and Scotland as a whole we don't have that number of international artists resident. So we are creating a number of international chairs, of which the Brodskys will hold the first, that will bring those artists here and create the opportunities for students to have greater exposure to musicians of this stature and calibre."

And that cuts directly to the core of the function of the Brodskys' residence. They will not simply fly in, give a concert and perhaps a masterclass, then fly out. Next week, after their Friday lunchtime launch concert, they will stay on through the weekend for two and a half days of intensive workshopping, tutoring and training with academy string quartets. They will work collectively and individually with the student groups. Their work, in due course, will extend to the school of drama. And that, with variations and developments, will be the pattern of their three visits per academic session, each time with a public concert. The bulk of the residency, however, will be happening behind closed doors, with the students, perhaps with occasional public viewing of the proceedings. The agenda for the Brodskys is brutally simple: they are being asked to seek, find, coach and produce the best possible quality of experience for their students.

Whether their public concert life in Scotland will reflect any of their star-studded collaborative work remains to be seen, though it's on the wish list of the academy high-flyers.

The Brodskys are said to relish the forthcoming residency. They are in a period of transition, having just re-launched with a new leader, Daniel Rowland, a relationship one of the group described as "a marriage of four minds". Rowland admits that he has had "virtually no relationship to rock and pop", though he's looking forward to the challenge. They also have another new residency, at London's Cadogan Hall, though that one is concerts only, five or six per season.

Which leaves the question of the money. How can the RSAMD afford the iconic group? It can't, not out of its budget as an educational institution. And there is not one penny spare for a booking such as the Brodskys, which could not be approved until the entire funding of the three-year contract was guaranteed.

Enter, once again, the Big Strategy. John Wallace and his team have created an External Affairs department, headed up by Peter Thierfeldt, formerly of the National Galleries and the RSNO. Its job? To source the funding. It has been done. And it has been done completely, lock, stock and barrel, for the full term of the residency, by private donations from Scottish philanthropists. No banks, no corporations, no names, just the cash up front from individual donors, and in the bank. Now there is something to think about, eh?

  • The Brodsky Quartet play Barber and Ravel on Friday, November 2, at 1pm at the RSAMD, Glasgow.