Aydar Gaynullin is a Russian bayan (button accordion) player and composer born in Moscow to a working-class family who made significant sacrifices to fund his early musical training. He trained at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music with honors under Professor Friedrich Lips, and later studied in Berlin at the Hanns Eisler Higher School of Music with Gudrun Wall.

Gaynullin has toured more than 30 countries and collaborated with major classical artists including Mstislav Rostropovich, Anna Netrebko, and Yuri Bashmet, and he has arranged works (such as Schnittke’s Polka and Tango) for violin and accordion. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2020, became a soloist of the Moscow Regional Philharmonic in 2016, and has taught accordion in Berlin since 2011, alongside winning several international competitions.