Kira Kraftzoff, artistic director and founder of the Rastrelli Cello Quartet, the Russian Quattro and the Rastrelli Chamber Orchestra, was born in 1971 in Leningrad, USSR, now St. Petersburg.

 He began his musical and artistic training at the age of six, at the "Special School for Highly Gifted Children" at the State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, under the supervision of Prof. Mark Reisenstock.

 At the age of 14, Kraftzoff made his debut with the St. Petersburg Radio Symphony Orchestra, in the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, with Aram Khatchaturian's Cello Concerto. Among his early competitions, one deserves special mention: in the National USSR Competition in 1988, Kraftzoff received the highest award as the youngest finalist.

 He continued his studies with Prof. Anatoly Nikitin at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg and graduated with distinction in 1994. Afterwards, Kraftzoff worked for four years as a lecturer in Nikitin's cello class while continuing his studies as a student of the legendary Daniel Schafran. In 1993, as a representative of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the young cellist, was able to participate in Mstislav Rostropovich's first master class in Russia after his long exile. He then came to Stuttgart through a student exchange program and studied there with Prof. Peter Buck, the cellist of the "Melos Quartet".

 Kira Kraftzoff has won international competitions in Spain, South Africa, Italy, Germany and Austria. As a soloist, he has been a guest of the Philharmonie in St.Petersburg, Berlin and Munich. He has also performed in the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Laiszhalle Hamburg, the Stefaniensaal Graz, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Grand Park in Chicago, the Taegue Philharmonie in South Korea and others. Festivals like the Davos Music Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, the Savonlinna Festival in Finland, the Musical Olympus in St. Petersburg are an integral part of the concert calendar. Kira Kraftzoff worked with fellow artists such as Gidon Kremer, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gilles Apap, Giora Feidman and David Geringas.

 The list of radio and television recordings includes productions for NBC, BR, SWR, HR, NDR and NHK.

 The TV station "Russia 1" produced a 40-minute documentary about his life and his artistic career. From 1991 to 1994, before founding the Rastrelli Cello Quartet, Kira Kraftzoff was the first cellist of the "St. Petersburg Soloists," a position which he also held in the "Württemberg Chamber Orchestra" in Heilbronn from 1998 to 2005.

 In 2010, he started his career as a conductor and founded the “Rastrelli Chamber Orchestra." In 2012, he founded the “Russian Quattro” - the world's first professional string quartet with two violins and two cellos. From 2005 to 2010, he was professor of strings at the State University for Art and Culture in St. Petersburg.