Irina Sergeyevna Bogatyryova is a writer, folklorist, collector, jaw harp performer and teacher based in the Moscow region. She has received several literary awards, including the Oktyabr magazine prize, the Ivan Goncharov International Literary Prize and the Student Booker.

Bogatyryova has played the jaw harp since the early 2000s. In 2011, she and Vladimir Markov formed the Olkhon Gate duo after meeting at Lake Baikal, where they recorded an album of entirely improvised music. Their subsequent work included returning the jaw harp to Russian instrumental folk tradition, adapting traditional melodies and combining the instrument with singing and other folk instruments.

Bogatyryova founded a jaw harp school in Moscow and has conducted lessons, workshops and lectures. The teaching experience accumulated by Bogatyryova and Markov formed the basis of their 2019 book Jaw Harp: A Self-Study Guide to the Timeless Instrument. In 2017, she published S. and Other Jaw Harp Stories, a work of fiction exploring the instrument’s history and its place in different cultures.

In 2024, Bogatyryova was one of the curators of the Varganny Put exhibition at the Novgorod Museum-Reserve. The project brought together archaeological and ethnographic instruments from several state museums and private collections, including Bogatyryova’s own collection, and traced the history of the jaw harp from its earliest known forms to the present day.

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