Rauf Abdullayev is an Azerbaijani and Soviet conductor, born in Baku on October 29, 1937. He graduated from the Azerbaijan Conservatory in 1959 and from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1965, where he studied conducting with Nikolai Rabinovich.
From 1968, Abdullayev was chief conductor of the Akhundov Opera and Ballet Theater. From 1984 to 2020, he served as artistic director and chief conductor of the Uzeyir Hajibeyov Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra. Between 1991 and 1997, he was chief conductor of the State Opera and Ballet Theater in Ankara, where he received the Best Conductor of the Year award in 1993 and 1997.
His ballet work included Sergei Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony (1966); Aram Khachaturian’s Spartacus (1967); Seven Beauties by Gara Garayev (1969 and 1978); Garayev’s Leyli and Majnun and Faraj Garayev’s Gobustan Shadows (1969); Kaleidoscope, to music by Domenico Scarlatti and Faraj Garayev (1971); and Garayev’s Path of Thunder (1975). In 1986, he co-founded the Gara Garayev International Festival of Contemporary Music in Baku with composers F. Garayev and O. Felzer.
Abdullayev was named People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1982 and Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1970. He received the State Prize of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1988, the Heydar Aliyev Prize in 2023, and the Golden Plane Tree International Prize in 2018.