The St Petersburg String Quartet was formed in 1985 by graduates of the Leningrad Conservatory under the guidance of Vladimir Ovcharek, the first violinist of the Taneyev String Quartet. After they won First Prize at the All-Soviet Union String Quartet Competition they began preparing for the first International Shostakovich Competition for String Quartets held in 1987. The Quartet won many prizes at this competition and subsequently received many invitations to tour in the USSR and abroad as well as record for TV and radio.

In 1989, having met with overwhelming success, the Quartet was given permission to use the name 'Leningrad String Quartet' and to travel to Tokyo to compete in the International Chamber Ensemble Competition, where they won the Silver Medal and Special Prize. That summer the Quartet visited the United States for the first time as Artists-in-Residence at the Musicorda Festival, Massachusetts, to which they have since returned regularly. Following the winning of First Prize and many accolades at the Florence and Melbourne International Chamber Music Competitions, the Quartet found itself in great demand to tour throughout the world and visited many countries including Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Estonia, Lithuania, Japan, North and South Korea, Taiwan, Argentina and the USA.

In September 1991 Leningrad became St Petersburg once again and the group re-named themselves the St Petersburg String Quartet. In 1994 the viola-player Konstantin Kats joined the Quartet.

During their tour of the USA in 1995 the Quartet received standing ovations and ecstatic reviews at numerous festivals, including 'Mostly Mozart' at the Lincoln Center. They returned to the USA in 1996 to perform to sold-out houses and made their Washington debut at the Smithsonian. During the 1996/97 season they were Quartet-in-Residence at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio.

They have continued to tour Europe to much acclaim and in summer 1998 made their United Kingdom debut tour which included performances at the Aldeburgh Festival and London's Wigmore Hall. Such was the response to their performances that they were immediately invited back to play at Wigmore Hall in 1999 and 2000 and invited to record the complete cycle of Shostakovich Quartets for Hyperion.