Tatar by nationality, he was born in Kazan, Russian Federation (Republic of Tatarstan).
Rustem Hayroudinoff graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Lev Naumov, and received his postgraduate degree (DipRAM) at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Christopher Elton.
He was the first student from Soviet Union to come to study at the Royal Academy, where he is now a Professor of Piano.
His CD of the Rachmaninoff Complete Preludes was selected by Classic FM Magazine as a part of the ‘four discs essential Rachmaninoff collection’, alongside the recordings of Arthur Rubinstein and André Previn, and his recording of the Complete Etudes-Tableaux by Rachmaninoff became the Instrumental Choice of the Month with the BBC Music Magazine and was nominated for the BBC Music Magazine Best Instrumental CD of the Year Award.
It was also selected as the finest version of these pieces on BBC Radio 3's Building a Library (programme presenter David Nice).