He began studying the violin at six years of age, making his first public appearance when he was seven with Kirill Kondrashin. He pursued his studies at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservartory with Professors Yankelevitz and Andrievsky. While still a student he was performing in concerts throughout the Soviet Union with the most important national orchestras, and in 1973 he was the first prize winner at the Soviet National Contest for violinists.

In 1974 he immigrated to the West and since then he has performed all over the world with the most important orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Philharmonic of Los Angeles and of Philadelphia, the Symphonic Orchestras of Pittsburgh and of Montreal, the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Concertgebouw and the most important British orchestras.

Boris Belkin has appeared in many television productions : a biografical film of the life of Jean Sibelius, in which he performs the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Orchestra of the Swedish Radio and Ashkenazy, the Tchaikovsky Concerto with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, Ravel’s Tzigane with Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France, and Mozart and the Concerto no. 1 by Paganini with Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Bernstein, Ashkenazy, Mehta, Maazel, Muti, Ozawa, Kurt Sanderling, Temirkanov, Dohnanyi, Dutoit, Gelmetti, Herbig, Tennstedt, Rattle, Haitink, Berglund, Mata, Chung, Hirokami, Fedoseyev, Welser-Most, Ahronovitch and many others.

His first recording, the Concerto no. 1 by Paganini with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, was highly praised. His other recordings for Decca include the Concerts of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius with the Philharmonia and Ashkenazy, the Concerto by Strauss with the Berlin Radio and Ashkenazy, the Concerts no. 1 and no. 2 with the London Symphony and Kondrashin, the Brahms Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra and Fischer. For Denon he has recorded the Concertos by Prokofiev with the Tonhalle of Zurich and Michael Stern; the Concerts of Sibelius and Bruch and the no. 1 by Shostakovich and the Concerto by Glazunov with the Royal Philharmonic and Junichi Hirokami; the Concerto by Tchaikovsky with the London Philharmonic and Stern; the Concerto in A maj. K. 219 by Mozart and the Sinfonia concertante with the Salzburg Chamber Soloists and the Sonatas by Brahms with Michel Dalberto.

In 1997 Isaac Stern invited him to perform with him at the Miazaki Festival.

Boris Belkin also dedicates himself to the chamber music repertory, performing with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky and many others.

His 2006/2007 season includes a European tour with the Philharmonic of Saint Petersburg and Yuri Temirkanov, a tour in Japan with the NHK Orchestra with Junichi Hirokami and Vladimir Ashkenazy and a tour in Australia with the Sydney Symphony under the direction of Gianluigi Gelmetti. In the 2007/2008 season he will perform with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig conducted by Leonard Slatkin and with the Dresden Staatskapelle conducted by Charles Dutoit.

In the last seasons he appeared with the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Temirkanov, touring every year regularly in Japan and in South America with Ashkenazy.

In 2020-2021 seasons he will be in Europe again with three Orchestras of Moscow and the St Petersburg Philarmonic too.

He has been teaching for the last three years at the Tokyo University.

Since 2000 he plays a violin built by Roberto Regazzi of Bologna

Boris Belkin has held masterclasses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena every year from 1986-2020.