Ayyub Guliyev has held the position of the Principal Conductor at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Balet Theatre since 2011. He is a winner of the Arturo Toscanini International Competition of Conductors in Parma, Italy and has also won first prizes at the Witold Lutosławski Competition for Young Conductors in Bialystok and the Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition in Athens. Highlights of the 2024/25 season include the tour with the Marinsky Theatre balet One Thousand and One Nights in China, conducting the orchestra of the China National Balet at BPAC hal in Beijing and at the Royal Opera House of Muscat in Oman, colaboration with Orquestra Sinfonica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro and Orquestra Simfônica do Theatro da Paz in Belém, Brazil, tour with the balet of Tatar State Opera and the Balet Theatre in China, symphonic concert in the frame of the Uzeyir Hajibeyli International Music Festival with the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra, return to the Latvian National Opera and the Kazan Opera. During the 2023/24 season, Guliyev conducted the Marinsky Theatre balet One Thousand and One Nights in St. Petersburg, on tour in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre and on tour in Qatar. He led Don Giovanni at the Latvian National Opera, Tosca and Turandot at the Kazan Opera, performed various programs with the Moscow Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra in Moscow and on tour in China, with the St. Petersburg Symphony orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and the Georgia State Chamber Orchestra. His repertoire includes operas such as La Bohème, Tosca, Il Trovatore, Aida, Rigoletto, La Traviata, L'elisir d'amore, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Cavaleria Rusticana, Carmen, and Aleko, as wel as balets Swan Lake, Gisele, The Nutcracker, Petrushka and Daphnis et Chloé among others. Additionaly, he recorded a CD in his debut colaboration with Sinfonia Varsovia, made his debut with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Lutoslawski International Youth Orchestra at the Young Euro Classics Festival in Berlin's Konzerthaus. Guliyev has led concerts with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Wiener Kammerorchester, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Toscanini Philharmonic, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, the Athens Orchestra, the Trondheim Orchestra, the Lamoureux Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Baku Philharmonic Orchestra, the Astana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bishkek Philharmonic Orchestra, the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, the Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Chamber Orchestra, the Turkey Presidential Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuania Symphony Orchestra, the ‘Hamburg Klassik’ Symphony Orchestra, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic, the ‘Óbudai Danubia’ Symphony Orchestra (Hungary) and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Moldova among others. In opera productions, he has conducted at the Kyiv State Opera, the Bucharest Opera, the Wrocław Opera, the Novi Sad National Opera Theatre, the Bucharest National Opera Theatre and the Sofia National Opera Theatre among others. One of the most decorated Azerbaijani conductors of his generation, Ayyub Guliyev was recently awarded the Golden Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit and holds multiple national awards and titles, including the Azerbaijan Foundation ‘Friends of the Culture’ ‘Best Musician of the Year’ Award, the Best Achievement of the Year 2019 Award, the title of Honorary Art Worker of the Azerbaijan Republic (2017) and the annual Presidential State Prize for musicians. Ayyub Guliyev is currently the Associate Professor of the Conducting Department of The Music Academy in Baku.