My Year of Quartets: serendipity and Kabbalistic numerology (gematria) of the number 4 and its multiples. On May 22 (2+2), four days before my 79th (7+9=16) birthday on May 26 (2+6=8) the Ancia Saxophone Quartet from Minneapolis presented a short excerpt from my new, and only, saxophone quartet entitled “The Center Does Not Hold.” In Berlin, a string quartet has been rehearsing “Two Alleys in Old Tel-Aviv” my first piece for this classic ensemble (4+4=16). In Hebrew number notation 79 is עט (ayin teth) that also spells out the word “writing pen.”Alas, there is no handwritten manuscript for both works since both were composed directly on computer using music notation software.