Arditti was born in London in 1953, and began his studies in violin and composition at the Royal Academy at the age of sixteen. Arditti won prizes for violin and composition, but decided he was a better violinist and stopped composing. The focus of the quartet on new music is due to Arditti's interest in it, which began with composing in his childhood and hearing music by Stockhausen, Ligeti and others of the avant garde of the 1960s. It was later that Ardittí became aware of the work of the LaSalle Quartet. In his last year at the Royal Academy of Music the Quartet was founded, and it continued during the time he was in the London Symphony Orchestra from 1976-1980, after which he left the Orchestra in order to dedicate himself full-time to the quartet.