Berlinskaya is the daughter of a lawyer mother, Zoya Ivanova, and musician father: cellist Valentin Berlinsky, founder of the Borodin Quartet.

[1] Her childhood was spent in the presence of the many artists and figures in the Russian intelligentsia who surrounded her parents such as composers Mieczysław Weinberg, Dmitri Shostakovitch, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina; instrumentalists Mstislav Rostropovitch, David Oistrakh, Daniil Shafran, Yakov Zak, Alexander Goldenweiser, Yakov Flier; conductors Yuri Temirkanov, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Dmitri Kitayenko; artists Anatoly Zverev, Nikolai Silis, Vadim Sidur, Vladimir Lemporte, Rustam Khamdamov, Dmitry Krasnopevtsev, author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and academic Andrei Sakharov.

Ludmila Berlinskaya began playing piano at the age of five and a year later enrolled at the Gnessin Musical College in Anna Kantor's class, best known for teaching Evgeny Kissin and Nikolai Demidenko.

A key stage in her life came during her musical career: 13‑year-old Ludmila Berlinskaya played one of the three lead roles in the film A Great Space Voyage by Valentin Selyanov which was a phenomenal success and became the symbol of a generation.

Besides Sviatoslav Richter's personal influence which greatly affected her future decisions, Ludmila Berlinskaya made the most of the relationship to befriend numerous artists: Yuri Borissov, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Galina Ulanova, Boris Pokrovsky, Ivan Kozlovsky, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Vasiliev, Stanislav Neuhaus, Natalia Gutman, Oleg Kagan, Innokenty Smoktunovsky and others.

Following their first concert at the Paris Town Hall, the then mayor's wife, Mrs Chirac, offered Ludmila Berlinskaya the chance to create a festival: the Salon Musical Russe.

Ludmila Berlinskaya performed recitals and chamber music in the greatest international venues such as Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Moscow Conservatory, the Fenice in Venice, the Royal Academies of Brussels and Madrid plus a large number of festivals.

Within an abundant discography, Ludmila Berlinskaya has recorded works by Rachmaninov, Glinka, Schnittke, Mendelssohn, Janacek, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Liszt, Schumann, Beethoven, Medtner, Ravel...