Rustem Kh. Galiullin

Rustem Khanifovich Galiullin is an Honoured Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

He was born in Ufa, the son of the well‑known musician, conductor, and brass band director Khamit G. Galiullin.

In 1982 he graduated from the Specialised Secondary Music School at the Ufa State Institute of Arts, trumpet class of Mikhail Ye. Perfilyev and Ilgiz I. Galiullin, and in 1989 he graduated with distinction from the Ufa State Institute of Arts, trumpet class of Professor Salavat G. Gainullin.

From 1983 to 1985 he served in the armed forces as a soloist in a military band in Kuibyshev (now Samara).

In 1980 and 1986 he was invited to perform as a soloist with the touring orchestra of the Galiaskar Kamal Tatar State Academic Theatre in Kazan.

From 1985 to 1987 he worked as a musician with the Bashkir State Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, and from 1992 as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Since 1993 he has taught at the Ufa College of Arts.

From his school years he developed a passion for jazz, and during his conservatory studies, alongside classical training, he decided to devote serious attention to the art of jazz improvisation.

In 1987, together with saxophonist Oleg Kireyev, he founded the jazz ensemble Orlan, which continues to perform successfully to this day. As a soloist, composer, and arranger with Orlan he has repeatedly become a laureate of major All‑Union, All‑Russian, and international jazz festivals and competitions in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Riga, Pärnu, Yaroslavl, Tbilisi, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Yekaterinburg, Saratov, Kazan, Grozny, Abakan, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok, Kraków, Warsaw, Helsinki, Montreux, and Pula.

In 2014 Orlan appeared with great success at New York’s Symphony Space with the ethno‑jazz programme Bashkir Caravan, and in 2016 at the 22nd Nisville International Jazz Festival in Serbia.

As a soloist, composer, and arranger of the group he took part in recordings of the albums Bashkir Legends (Melodiya, LP, 1989) and Bashkir Caravan (Mark Rozovsky Theatre Studio, 2012).

From 1994 to 2014 he lived and worked in South‑East Asia, based in Bangkok (Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, China), as a soloist, teacher, arranger, composer, and studio musician.

He performs actively as a soloist with the Bangkok International Big Band, at concerts in the Royal Palace for the Royal Family of Thailand, on television shows, and in various projects at jazz festivals across South‑East Asia.

From 2005 to 2013 he was a soloist with the jazz ensemble at The Dome State Tower in Bangkok.

During this period he performed and toured with guitarist Bruce Forman (USA), drummer Bobby Durham (USA), pianists François Lindemann (Switzerland) and Mauro Monti (Switzerland), guitarist Dan Phillips (USA), and shared the stage with Maynard Ferguson, Poncho Sanchez, Buddy Childers, and Al Grey. He has also appeared in concerts with Rex Richardson, Sal Cracchiolo, John Thomas, Steve Cannon, Pierrick Pédron, Tim Hauff, and Terje Venaas.

He performs regularly in Hong Kong and Singapore, and in 1999 worked in the jazz club The Big Easy in Beijing.

Throughout this time he has maintained an active concert and studio career as a soloist and arranger in projects with leading figures of the Asian music scene, appearing as a soloist with world stars Johnny Logan (2002) and Keith Tynes (2012) and playing lead trumpet in the musical Guys and Dolls in Bangkok (2003).

He took part in Thai International Jazz Conferences in 2009 and 2010, and in 2005 was invited to the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Bangkok as a jury member for the final round of the Jazz Improvisation Competition, a soloist in the closing Festival of Trumpets concert, and host of a jam session.

From 1994 to 2006 he taught at international schools in Bangkok, including the International School of Bangkok, St John International School, Shrewsbury International School, the American School of Bangkok, MIFA International Academy of Music, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration School, and Yamaha Music School.

From 2003 to 2007 he taught classical trumpet at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, and from 2007 to 2013 he taught jazz trumpet and trombone at Mahidol University, training a new generation of professional jazz musicians and teachers.

After returning to Russia in 2014 he became active on the Moscow jazz scene as a soloist with the Fonograf Jazz Band under Sergei Zhilin, the Odintsovo Pops Symphony Orchestra under Alexei Balin, and the Exemplary Pops Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations under Alexei Kozhevatov. He also taught at the Domisolka Children’s Music Theatre and performed regularly with leading Moscow jazz musicians.

In 2014 he appeared with Orlan at jazz festivals including Jazz in Hermitage Garden (Moscow), the Vladimir Rezitsky Jazz Festival (Arkhangelsk), Pula Jazz Festival (Croatia, 2016), and Jazz Across Borders (Saint Petersburg, 2018).

In 2016 he moved to Ufa to work at the Kh. Akhmetov Bashkir State Philharmonic as a soloist and Music Director of the Orlan Jazz Studio Ensemble and to teach at the Ufa College of Arts. During this period he also appeared regularly in the jazz series of the Moscow State Philharmonic with Oleg Kireyev’s Chamber Jazz Ensemble and, in 2017, performed with the Ufa jazz ensemble at the festival This Amazing World in Chelyabinsk, presenting his own music.

He has also appeared as a guest soloist with the Presidential Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus under Viktor Babarikin in Minsk and has been invited to perform at a jazz festival in Belgrade, Serbia. In 2018 he returned to Moscow to work as a soloist with the Georgy Garanian Big Band, the Georgy Garanian Melodiya Ensemble, and the Pops Symphony Orchestra under Alexei Balin, while continuing his teaching activities.

He is an official P. Mauriat Paris trumpet artist, a member of the International Union of Musical Figures, the International Trumpet Guild, and the Thailand Trumpet Guild. His composition Kuvash kupere has become a widely requested item on specialised jazz radio playlists.

He is currently an Associate Professor at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music and a soloist with several jazz groups, including the Gnesin Jazz Quintet.

Textbooks and teaching materials:

• Jazz Trumpet: A Basic Model, teaching and methodological guide, Gnesin Russian Academy of Music Press, 2022.
• The Evolution of Jazz Trumpet: From New Orleans Style to Hard Bop, teaching and methodological guide, Moscow: Probel‑2000, 2025.

Publications:

• «Historical Features of the Development of Jazz Art in Ufa», in Jazz Art in Contemporary Musical Culture, proceedings of the First All‑Russian Scholarly and Practical Conference, Moscow, 28 April 2022, Moscow: Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2024.
• «Historical Aspects of the Trumpet in Jazz: Experience in Creating a Teaching and Methodological Guide», in Contemporary Art in the Discourse of Time, proceedings of the International Scholarly and Practical Conference, Moscow, 28 March 2025.