Cellist RUSLAN BIRYUKOV received his formal music education at Baku Music Academy in his native Baku, Azerbaijan. He later attended the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in Russia and the USC Thornton School of Music. Ruslan gives more than 100 concerts annually and has performed throughout the former USSR, Europe, and in the U.S.

Though still young, Biryukov has been a master teacher in music festivals in Europe and Russia, and continues to develop a distinctive approach to performance based upon the traditions he learned from Kirill Rodin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran, Natalia Gutman, Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis, and Eleonore Schoenfeld.