Vadim Repin was born in Siberia in 1971 and won all categories of the Wienawski competition at the age of eleven. His debuts in Moscow and St. Petersburg followed immediately, and at 14 he made his debut in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin and Helsinki, a year later at Carnegie Hall. At 17 he was the youngest ever winner of the Reine Elisabeth Concours. Since then he has performed with the world's most important orchestras and conductors in all the major music centres. The list of his stage partners includes illustrious conductors such as Ashkenazy, Boulez, Chailly, Chung, Dohnányi, Dutoit, Gergiev, Jansons, Levine, Mehta, Muti, Nagano, Ozawa, Temirkanov and Thielemann, and chamber musician partners such as Argerich, Bartoli, Capuçon, Golan, Kissin, Knyazev, Korobeinikov, Lang Lang, Lugansky and Maisky.

Vadim Repin recorded the great Russian violin concertos by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky for Warner Classics; the Beethoven Violin Concerto and the Kreutzer Sonata with Martha Argerich with the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti for Deutsche Grammophon, and the Brahms Violin Concerto and Double Concerto (with Truls Mørk, cello) with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly. DG's trios of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov with Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang won the Echo Prize, and a CD of sonatas by Grieg, Janacek and César Franck with Nikolai Lugansky won the BBC Music Award. In 2010 he was awarded the highest French distinction, the Victoire d'Honneur and the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres for his services to music. In Beijing he was appointed Honorary Professor of the Central Conservatory of Music in 2014, a year later at the Shanghai Conservatory. Music education plays an important role in Vadim Repin’s life – and he has given masterclasses for young violinists at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, and been on the jury of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, Tchaikovsky Competition Moscow and the Brussels Concours Reine Elisabeth.

In April 2014 he became founder and Artistic Director of the annual Transsiberian Arts Festival, which continues to be enthusiastically received in Novosibirsk and many Russian cities as well as in Japan, Israel, Vienna, the USA and France, and has been the venue of world premieres of the violin concerti dedicated to him: "Voices of Violin" by Benjamin Yussupov, "De Profundis" by Lera Auerbach, Alexander Raskatov’s “Ex Oriente Lux”, Ilya Demutsky’s Violin Concerto, "Dialogue: You and I" by Sofia Gubaidulina (recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig under Andris Nelsons). Most recently Vadim Repin premiered Arvo Pärt’s revised version of “La Sindone” to which the composer, marking his 85th year, added a solo violin part for Vadim Repin. On a European tour with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, he played the world première and numerous performances of the double concerto "Shadow Walker" by Mark-Anthony Turnage, together with Daniel Hope.

Recent highlights are performances of the programme "Pas de Deux" together with internationally renowned ballerina Svetlana Zakharova in Hong Kong, Muscat, Japan and Korea, and concerts at the Enescu Festival Bucharest, in Verbier and at the Montreal Festival, with the RAI Torino Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia, the Japan Philharmonic concerts with orchestra in Abu Dhabi, Poland, Italy and France, and recitals in Seoul and Rome.

Vadim Repin plays a violin by Niccolo Amati dated 1664.