Raushan Orazbay (b. 1973) is a kui performer and baqsy, and a virtuoso of the qobyz. Her exceptional talent revealed itself in early childhood: at the age of ten she entered the Republican Kazakh Specialized Music Boarding School for Gifted Children named after A. K. Zhubanov in Almaty, where her first mentor was the renowned master and connoisseur of qobyz music Abdymanap Zhumabekuly. After graduating, Raushan continued her studies at the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory, specializing in traditional music, and later completed postgraduate studies there under the same Zhumabekuly.

Over nearly three decades of artistic activity, Orazbai has worked as a soloist and accompanist with the Folk Music Ensemble of the Presidential Orchestra, as a senior lecturer at the Kurmangazy Conservatory, and as an associate professor in the Qobyz department at the Kazakh National University of Arts in Astana. She has trained an entire generation of talented musicians, including Kurmanbek Olzhas, Sandzhar Almishev, and others.

To introduce audiences to the spiritual heritage of the steppe, Raushan Orazbay has interpreted and adapted for the qobyz traditional works by Korkyt and Ikhlas, as well as well-known pieces such as Sugir’s “Ilme,” “Kosbasar,” “Togyz Tarau,” “Mayda Konyr,” and “Karatau,” Tattimbet’s “Kyrmyzy Kosbasar,” Zhappas Kalambaev’s “Zhumen,” and Nurgisa Tlendiev’s “Akku.” Most of her innovative playing techniques have today become canonical.

Raushan has given solo concerts in Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, France, Italy, England, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and India. She has also conducted masterclasses and lecture-performances at leading institutions worldwide, including the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Harvard University, the Boston Conservatory, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.