Elena Ryabova was born in 1975 in Moscow into a family of musicians, and started playing the violin at the age of five. Endowed with talent and a natural gift for music, she joined the Central School of Music for gifted children, attached to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow. She performed very young as a soloist at concerts in Russia and abroad. In 1993, after completing her course at the Central School of Music, she entered the Moscow Conservatory. During her period of study she began working with the Russian Camerata Orchestra as well as with other symphony and chamber orchestras.

In 1998, after finishing the Conservatory course with distinction, she joined the Gulbenkian Orchestra. She regularly performs solo and in chamber music recitals in Portugal and abroad.