Born in Belgrade in 1953, Sreten Krstić began playing the violin at the age of seven. He won the highest prizes at national competitions and received Second Prize at the International Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade in 1973. In 1976, he was again awarded Second Prize, as well as the Special Prize for the best performance of a work by J. S. Bach.

As concertmaster of the World Youth Orchestra, he performed in 1975 and 1977 with soloists such as Henryk Szeryng and Pierre Fournier, and under conductors Jean Martinon and Bernhard Klee. Since 1980, he has served continuously as First Concertmaster of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, whose chief conductor was Sergiu Celibidache until his death. He subsequently worked under chief conductors James Levine (from 1999), Christian Thielemann (from 2004), Lorin Maazel (from 2012), and Valery Gergiev (from 2016).

As a soloist, Krstić has performed with distinguished conductors including Sergiu Celibidache, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Hiroshi Wakasugi, Horst Stein, Václav Neumann, Dmitri Kitayenko, and many others, as well as with all major orchestras of the former Yugoslavia. His concert engagements have taken him throughout Europe, as well as to Japan, the United States, and the former Soviet Union.

In 1985, he founded the string ensemble Gasteig-Trio München. In 1996, he established the Philharmonische Streichsextett (Philharmonic String Sextet), followed in 1999 by the chamber orchestra Philharmonische Solisten (Philharmonic Soloists), of which he remains Artistic Director. Since 2011, he has also served as Permanent Concertmaster and Artistic Director of the Zagreb Soloists.

Krstić has recorded for all major radio and television stations in the former Yugoslavia, as well as for Bavarian Radio, West German Radio (WDR), the BBC in Manchester, and Greek Radio in Thessaloniki. He has also made numerous recordings of both solo and chamber music repertoire for labels including PGP, Thorofon, Arte Nova Classics, and others.

From 2007 to 2010, Krstić served as Artistic Director of the Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS), one of the oldest and largest classical music festivals in the region.

He has been a jury member at several international competitions, including the Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade (2011), the Sixth Lovro von Matačić International Conducting Competition in Zagreb (2015), the Fifth International Competition for Young Composers in Samobor (2016), and the Isaac Stern International Violin Competition in Shanghai (2018).

Over the past decade, Krstić has devoted increasing attention to pedagogy. In addition to private teaching, he regularly gives violin masterclasses in Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Valencia, and other cities.