Sergei Belkin was born near Donetsk, Ukraine in 1973. He taught himself to play a squeezebox accordion at the age of seven. In 1982, at the age nine, he moved with his mother to Provedeniya, Siberia, a remote town on the north-eastern coast of Russia, where he was fortunate enough to come under the teaching of Nina Andreevna Dronova, a master music teacher. Sergei studied and practiced the accordion from seven to ten hours each day for many years. He blossomed and was soon competing in regional and national music competitions, winning awards for his accordion playing.  He studied music performance and education at the Kamchatka Music College under Dr. Vladimir Fedorovich Shashin  from 1988 to 1993. He was the first place winner of the international program of the European New Names Contest in 1992, held at Moscow's Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. He studied music performance at the Moscow Conservatory for two years before he emigrated to the United States in 1998.

Sergei's repertoire ranges from classical works by Bach, Mozart, Khachaturian, Paganini, and Rimsky-Korsakov, to folk styles from around the world, including tango, waltz, zydeco and polka. Since making his home in Madison, Wisconsin in 2002, he has performed with the University of Wisconsin Concert Band, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and has given solo performances at various festivals and events.