It was formed in Israel in about 2000 by students at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance, when its members were teenagers.
They performed the Schubert Cello Quintet with their mentor Paul Katz for their final recital.
The Ariel Quartet has performed extensively in Israel, Europe, and North America, including such venues as the Louvre in Paris, Kaisersaal in Frankfurt ("…a tour de force," said Frankfurter Allgemeine), Jordan Hall in Boston, and the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
In the 2010-2011 season the quartet participated in a Beethoven cycle at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and was the string quartet accompaniment to the competitors at the 13th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in May 2011.
In addition to performing the traditional string quartet repertoire, the Ariel Quartet regularly collaborates with many Israeli and non-Israeli musicians and composers, including pianists Roman Rabinovich, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Stefano Miceli and Yaron Kohlberg; the Jerusalem String Quartet; composers Matan Porat, Matti Kovler, and Menachem Wiesenberg; clarinetist Moran Katz; violist Roger Tapping; and the Zukerman Chamber Players.