The Russian National Orchestra was founded by the conductor and pianist Mikhail Pletnev in 1990, following sweeping changes in the former USSR. Under his artistic leadership, the orchestra soon achieved international renown and established its hallmarks of innovation and excellence. Vladimir Jurowski served as Principal Guest Conductor from 2005 to 2009. In 2008, a panel of international critics named the Russian National Orchestra as one of the world’s top orchestras. In recognition of both its artistic quality and its pioneering structure, the Russian Federation recently awarded the Russian National Orchestra the first-ever grant to a nongovernmental orchestra.

After the Russian National Orchestra's 1996 début at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote, "They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure." They have been described as "a living symbol of the best in Russian art" (Miami Herald) and "as close to perfect as one could hope for" (ClassicsToday). Recently the RNO was called "the most important cultural story of our time" (International Piano). A regular visitor to the Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad, and Rheingau Festivals, the Russian National Orchestra is also the founding orchestra of the Napa Valley Festival del Sole, the Festival of the Arts BOCA in Florida, and the Singapore Sun Festival. In 2009, the orchestra launched its own annual festival in Moscow.

Gramophone magazine called the orchestra' first album release in 1991 of music by Tchaikovsky, "an awe-inspiring experience; should human beings be able to play like this?" More than 60 recordings have followed since, mostly on the Deutsche Grammophon and Pentatone labels, as well as on Ondine. The charity recording of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Beintus's Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano and narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton, and Mikhail Gorbachev, won a 2004 Grammy Award, the first such recognition for any Russian orchestra.