Boris Davidovich Belkin is a Soviet-born violin virtuoso born on January 26, 1948. As a child prodigy, he began studying the violin at the age of six and made his first public appearance with Kirill Kondrašin at the age of seven.
He was taught by Yuri Yankelevich and Isaac Stern, and studied at the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory with Professors Yuri Yankelevich, Felix Andrievsky, and Isaac Stern. During his studies, he played with leading national orchestras all over the Soviet Union.
In 1973, he won first prize at the Soviet National competition for Violinists, but was not granted a visa to participate in the 1971 nor 1973 Paganini Competitions in Italy. This led him to emigrate to Israel in 1974, and he later moved to London, Paris, and back to London.
In 1974, he emigrated to the west and has since performed with many of the leading orchestras around the world, including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, and many others.
Boris Belkin has also been featured in many television productions, including a film biography of Jean Sibelius, performing the Sibelius Concerto with the Swedish Radio Orchestra and Ashkenazy, with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, and with Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
He has collaborated with many conductors, including Bernstein, Ashkenazy, Mehta, Maazel, Muti, Ozawa, Sanderling, Rudolf Barshai, Temirkanov, Dohnányi, Dutoit, Gelmetti, Herbig, Tennstedt, Rattle, Haitink, Berglund, Mata, Chung, Hirokami, Fedoseyev, Ahronovich, Groves, Leinsdorf, Steinberg, Welser-Möst, Lazarev, Doron Salomon, Simonov, and many others.
In addition to his solo career, Boris Belkin also dedicates himself to chamber music, performing with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky, and many others.
He has held master classes at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, since 1987 and is a faculty member at the Maastricht Academy of Music in the Netherlands since 1997. One of his students is Janine Jansen.
