Biography Ruslan Sirota

Ruslan is a Grammy award winning pianist and composer.

Ruslan was born in Uman, Ukraine. His father, Yefim, who was an active local guitarist, had introduced him to music at an early age. Picking up guitar around the age of four, Ruslan had transitioned to piano around the age of seven. In 1990, his family moved to Israel, where he continued to study piano at the Bat-Yam music school. At approximately 14, Ruslan discovered jazz, instantly showing imminent interest. By the age of 16, he was the "wunderkind" keyboardist for the then-popular Israeli jazz fusion band, "Confusion". With Confusion, he toured Israel and made several appearances at the Red Sea Jazz Festival.

At 18, Ruslan auditioned for the Berklee College of Music, where he received full tuition scholarship, and moved to Boston in January 2000. During his studies at Berklee, Ruslan displayed growing interest in R&B, funk and soul music, playing with local artists and eventually becoming the resident keyboardist in a club called "Wally's Jazz Café". Circa 2004, Ruslan joined the Stanley Clarke band and moved to Los Angeles, thus marking the beginning of his professional career.

Since then, Ruslan has been touring, performing and recording with major artists (in addition to Clarke), such as Dennis Chambers, Ne-Yo, Marcus Miller, Chick Corea, Seal, Brian McKnight, Eric Benét, Rachelle Ferrell and Diane Warren. Nowadays, although still playing with others, Ruslan is mainly focusing on recording his debut album; its release date is due Fall 2011. Guest appearances include Chick Corea, George Duke and Stanley Clarke, among others.

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