Mikhail Kopelman graduated from the Moscow Conservatory where he studied under professors Maya Glezarova and Yuri Yankelevich. In 1973 he was awarded the second prize at the Jacques Thibaud competition in Paris. Mikhail Kopelman was a musician of the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra and concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic orchestra. Since 1976 Kopelman had been playing first violin of the Borodin String Quartet for next two decades. Kopelman was awarded the USSR State Prize and the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation for his performances with the Borodin Quartet. From 1980 till 1993 Mikhail Kopelman had been working at the Moscow Conservatory teaching both solo violin and string quartet. He gave master classes at the Guildhall School of Music in London, the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, UK, in Tour (France), Rome, Florence, Turku (Finland), Stockholm, the Hochschule in Hamburg, and the Hochschule in Vienna. Since 1993 Kopelman and his family have been living in the United States. In 1995 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award and the Concertgebouw Silver Medal of Honour. He was first violinist for the Tokyo String Quartet from 1996-2002 and founded the Kopelman Quartet in 2002. From 1996-2002, he was also a professor at the Yale School of Music teaching chamber music. Mikhail Kopelman took part in many international festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival (UK), Festival of Arts in Hong Kong, Musical Festival in Schleswig-Holstein, Festivals in Florence, Salzburg, Tour, Moscow, the Ravinia Festival, Santa Fe Festival, Caramoor Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. For over 15 years he closely worked with Sviatoslav Richter on stage and in a recording studio. His artistic career is also marked by collaboration with Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, Natalia Gutman, Gidon Kremer, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Alicia de Larrocha, Christoph Eschenbach, Yuri Bashmet, Victor Tretyakov, Elisa Virsaladze, Peter Donokhoe, Boris Berman, and Emanuel Ax. Recordings of his performances have been released numerous times at such recording studios as Melodiya, EMI, Virgin Classics, Teldec, Philips, Nimbus and Wigmore Live. for the Melodia, EMI, Virgin Classics, Teldec, Philips, Nimbus, and Wigmore Live labels. Mikhail Kopelman has participated in several international competitions as a juror. These include the Evian International String Quartet Competition, the ARD International Music Competition, the Beijing String Quartet Competition as well as the Indianapolis Violin Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the George Enescu Competition, The Bartok String Quartets competition, the P.I. Tchaikovsky International Competition. In 2013, he was elected as chairman of the jury at the Yankelevich International Violin Competition. In 2002, Mikhail Kopelman founded the Kopelman Quartet together with some of his alter egos from the Moscow Conservatory for holding up the best Russian performing traditions of string quartets. He has been teaching violin at the Eastman School of Music since 2002.
