Born in Riga, Ilja Grubert began his studies at the E.Darzin Music School. Considered a student of exceptional talent, at the age of fourteen he continued his training with the famous Russian teachers Yuri Yankelevich and Zinaida Gilel, and then under Leonid Kogan at the Moscow Conservatory.
Ilja Grubert earned his first international success at the Helsinki Sibelius Prize in 1975. Subsequently, he won the first prize in two prestigious international competitions, the Genova Paganini and Moscow Tchaikovsky Competitions in 1978.

He then embarked on a highly successful career, which has brought performances as a soloist with important orchestras, including the Moscow Philharmonic, St.Petersburg Philharmonic, the Russian State Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra, the Amsterdam and the Helsinki Philharmonic, working with conductors such аs Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Maxim Shostakovich, Yuel Levi, Voldemar Nelson, and Mariss Jansons. His concerts have included tours in the United States, Canada, Australia and throughout Europe.

Ilja Grubert has recorded for major record companies, with a repertoire that includes the Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Bruch concertos and all Prokofiev's violin compositions. In January 1996 he won the Golden Tuning Fork for his performance in the Sibelius and Bruch concertos. His latest recording for Naxos released in January 2007 is that of violin music by Ernst including the Concertino, the Rondo Papageno and the Othello fantasy, in original version with orchestra which have newer been recorded before.

He now lives in Holland, where he teaches at the Amsterdam Conservatory. He plays a 1740 violin by Pietro Guarnieri of Venice, formerly the property of Wieniawski.