Massimo Belli began studying the violin with his father, then continued with Bruno Polli. Under the tutelage of Renato Zanettovich he graduated cum laude at the “B.Marcello” Conservatory of Venice. He followed specialization courses in Fiesole with the Trio di Trieste and Piero Farulli, and at the Accademia Chigiana di Siena with Henryk Szeryng. For two years he was a student of Salvatore Accardo’s at the Accademia di Alto Perfezionamento “W.Stauffer” in Cremona.

The winner of numerous national and international competitions, Belli made his debut at sixteen at the Teatro Politeama Rossetti of Trieste for the Concert Society; later, as a soloist, he performed in the most important venues in Italy – the Teatro Verdi of Trieste, La Fenice in Venice, Bologna’s Sala Bossi, the Sala Verdi of the Milan Conservatory, the Milan Press Club, the Turin Conservatory, Milan’s Teatro Litta, Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo, the Todi Festival, Florence’s Estate Fiesolana, Padua’s Sala dei Giganti, the Aterforum of Ferrara – but also throughout Europe, the former Soviet Union, Turkey, and South America.

He has performed the principal concertos in the violin repertoire, accompanied by such notable orchestras as the Prague Conservatory Symphony Orchestra (Ciaikovskji), the Angelicum Orchestra of Milan (Beethoven), Trieste’s Teatro Verdi Orchestra (Bruch), the Haydn Philharmonia (Mendelssohn), and the Salzburg Chamber Orchestra (Mozart). He was lead violinist in the Italian Youth Orchestra, the Busoni Orchestra, the Haydn Philharmonia, and both lead violinist and conductor of the Virtuosi dell’Ensemble di Venezia.

Massimo Belli has worked with Salvatore Accardo, Ivry Gitlis, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Adriano Vendramelli, Aldo Bennici, Piero Bellugi, Tiziano Severini, Dan Zhu, Michael Flaksman, Domenico Nordio, and Stefan Milenkovic.

The great Triestine composer Giulio Viozzi dedicated a piece for solo violin to Massimo Belli, “Tema variato”, published by Pizzicato.

He has broadcast on radio and television in Italy, the Soviet Union, Germany, Yugoslavia, Brazil, and Austria, has recorded for Sipario Dischi, and performed world premieres of works by Donizetti and Tartini for Nuova Era (together with the pianist Victoria Terekiev) and Tirreno Editoriale di Lugano.

Massimo Belli studied conducting with Aldo Belli and Julian Kovatchev.

He teaches violin at the Trieste Conservatory. He has taught at the United World College of the Adriatic, at the summer courses in Solighetto, and has recently been invited to give master classes at the Conservatorio Reale di Murcia (Spain), the Hochschule of Mannheim, and the Academy of Tallin.

In August 2002 he had the honour to conduct the “Orchestra of the 40th”, composed of the prize-winners of the Città di Vittorio Veneto National Violin Competition, on the occasion of its fortieth anniversary.

He was for five years Vice-Director of the “Giuseppe Tartini” Conservatory of Trieste and was on the Administrative Council of Trieste’s "Giuseppe Verdi» Opera House Foundation.