[2] In 1976, at the age of five, she began making frequent trips with her mother and brother to Cleveland, Ohio, where the young St. John worked under the instruction of Linda Cerone.
[3] At age 10, St. John made her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, after which she spent three years touring the continent, including Spain, France, and Hungary.
[4] St. John has stated that, during her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, she was sexually assaulted by one of her instructors, Jascha Brodsky, when she was 14 years old.
[6][7][8] In 1985, St. John participated in the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists, winning 4th price in the Junior division.
In that same year, St. John traveled throughout the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, where she encountered the Romani people, a cultural experience that would later influence her musical performance projects.
St. John eventually returned to her studies and attended three different academies: the Guildhall School in London (under David Takeno), Mannes College of Music in New York (under Felix Galimir), and the New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston (under James Buswell).
Her previous recording, Bach: The Concerto Album, rose to number one in the iTunes' classical category in 2005, shortly after appearing in the "strongly recommended" section of Gramophone.
[13] St. John's work has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, CNN's Showbiz Today, Fox News, the CBC, and the Bravo!
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, gold medalist Nastia Liukin performed her floor routine to "Variations on Dark Eyes (Occhi Chornye)", from St. John's Gypsy album.
[14] At the time of its release, St. John received attention for her then-controversial photo on the cover of her debut album, Bach Works for Violin Solo (1996).
[16] She said in 2002: "If this cover, being unusual, ... is responsible for a couple of people picking it up and listening to these incredibly great works of Bach that they would not otherwise have heard, then it is all worthwhile.