Alexei Goribol performs concerts throughout Russia and Europe, records for radio and on CD, presents music programmes on Russia’s Channel 5 (including thirty episodes of the programme Night. Sound. Goribol) and takes part in Russian and international music festivals. He is well known as a proponent of the music of Leonid Desyatnikov and has been the first performer of many of the composer’s works. He has been Music Director of several acclaimed Russian films in recent years.From 2004 to 2007 he directed the Arts Festival in Kostomuksha (Karelia). Since 2008 he has been an organiser and manager of the Levitan Festival in Plyos. Artistic Director of the Russo-Finnish music and poetry festival Towards Vyborg. Artistic Director of the Britten Evenings at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (2013).

Since 2013 he has been an organiser and director of an annual series of music programmes at the Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow).

Rustam Komachkov was born to the family of the outstanding double-bass player Rifat Komachkov and began to study the cello at the age of seven. He trained at the Gnessin School of Music and the Moscow Conservatoire (class of Valentin Feigin) and completed a postgraduate study at the conservatoire (cello class of Alexander Knyaz, chamber ensemble class of Alexander Melnikov). He was the victor at a series of Russian and international competitions including the All-Russian Cello Competition and international chamber ensemble competitions in Vercelli and Caltanissetta (Italy). In 1993 he won 1st prize at the International Competition in Trapani (Italy). Rustam Komachkov has been acclaimed as one of the most talented cellists of his generation. He frequently performs in concerts, appearing as a soloist as well as with chamber ensembles. The musician’s repertoire includes cello concerti from various eras by such diverse composers as Vivaldi, Shostakovich and Prokofiev as well as solo works and chamber music.