Igor Palkin was born on December 29, 1959 in Kharkov, in the family of a well-known Choir Conductor, the People's Artist of Ukraine Vyacheslav Palkin.
From 1967 to 1978 he attended the Kharkiv Secondary Special Musical School, where he was educated as pianist and choir conductor. In 1984 graduated from the Tchaikovsky Kiev State Conservatoir as a Choir Conductor (Professor Lysenko's class) and Symphonic and Opera Conductor Professor Roman Kofman's class).
Since 1984 he worked as Conductor (from 1989 - Principal Conductor) of the Kiev Academic Musical Theatre for Children and Youth. In 1989 he worked on probation with the Conductors V.Sinaistskii and F.Mansurov at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia.
Igor Palkin has produced and conducted the following spectacles: Tchaikovsky's "Yolanta" and "The Nutcracker", Prokofiev's "Duenna" and "Romeo and Juliet", Verdi's "Rigoletto", Gounod's "Faust", Rimsky-Korsakov's "Tsar Saltan", Stetsenko's "Ivasyk-Telesyk" (premiere), Shostakovich' "The Priest and his Hireling Balda" (premiere in Ukraine), Gubarenko's "Letters of Love" and "Loneliness" (premiere), Ravel's "Child and Spells" (premiere in Ukraine) and "Bolero".
Igor Palkin has conducted orchestras not only in Ukraine but in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Slovenia, Croatia, France, Switzerland and other countries. He appeared with world-wide known performers: Virgilius Noreyko, Anatoliy Soloviyanenko, Dmytro Gnatyuk, Evgeniya Miroshnichenko, Maria Bieshu, Andrash Adorian (Chairman of the Flutist Association of Germany), the French violinist Frederick Pelassi (Laureate of the Paganini International Competition), Yuliana Osinchuk, Graf Mourzha, Frederick Giorike and others.
Igor Palkin is a participant of known international festivals: Festival of Modern Music in Zagreb (Croatia), the International Gala-Concerts in Maribor (Slovenia), Musical Festival for Children in Shybenyk (Croatia), annual festivals "Kyiv-Music-Fest", the "Kharkov Assemblies", Ukrainian Culture Days in Moscow, Ukrainian Culture Days in Munich (Germany), Ukrainian Culture Days in Toulouse (France), annual series of concerts "Stars of the Ukrainian Opera", in Belgium, France and Switzerland.
In 1993 Igor Palkin received the rank "Honoured Personality of the Arts of Ukraine".
Since 1997, Igor Palkin has been working as a Conductor of the Symphonic Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine.