Zakin was born to a violinist father in Tobolsk, Tyumen Oblast, and began studying at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory from the age of 8.

In February 1926, a piano quartet debuted, alternately named Klavier Kiddies, Jass auf vier Flügeln, and ERKLA (Erstes Klavier-Quartett), which included Zakin, Adam Gelbtrunk, Lewitsch (replaced by J. Pomerane, and later by Rio Gebhardt) and Leopold Mittmann.

[1] He also performed with violinists Paul Godwin,[5] David and Igor Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky in an illustrious career which saw him in frequent contact with impresario Sol Hurok.

[6][7][8] Zakin played the piano at the White House on several occasions during the terms of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B.

[6] Over the years he performed works by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Béla Bartók, Ernest Bloch, Johannes Brahms, Claude Debussy, George Frideric Handel, Joseph Haydn, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud, Sergei Prokofiev, Robert Schumann, Grigoraș Dinicu, George Enescu, César Franck, Fritz Kreisler, Ottokar Nováček, Gaetano Pugnani, Pablo de Sarasate and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.