The Telegraph Quartet was formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works.

Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swenson; and the Henschel Quartet. The Telegraph Quartet premiered Richard Feistinger's third string quartet, Icarus in Flight, a musical representation of climate change dated from 1880 to projected simulations of 2080. In 2022 the Telegraph Quartet gave the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's octet, Ever Yours, with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Ever Yours was co-commissioned by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, and the Clarice Smith Center at the University of Maryland at Columbia.

In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner. The San Francisco Chronicle praised the album, saying, "Just five years after forming, the Bay Area's Telegraph has established itself as an ensemble of serious depth and versatility, and the group's terrific debut recording only serves to reinforce that judgment."

Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. In the fall of 2017, the Quartet traveled to communities and schools in Maine with Yellow Barn's Music Haul, a mobile performance stage that brings music outside the concert hall to communities across the U.S. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. In 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan. It featured two concerts by the Telegraph, a week-long chamber music intensive with students from Taiwanese schools and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and masterclasses and coaching at high schools and universities across Taiwan.