The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a

school of music A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.

History

The conservatory was founded in 1862 by the Russian Music Society and

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ran ...

, a Russian pianist and composer. On his resignation in 1867, he was succeeded by Nikolai Zaremba.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov. At the time, his name was spelled , which he romanized as Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakow; the BGN/PCGN transliteration of Russian is used for his name here; ALA-LC system: , ISO 9 system: .. (18 March 1844 – 2 ...

was appointed as a professor in 1871, and the conservatory has borne his name since 1944, the centenary of his birth. In 1887, Rubinstein returned to the conservatory with the goal of improving overall standards. He revised the curriculum, expelled inferior students, fired and demoted many professors, and made entrance and examination requirements more stringent. In 1891, he resigned again over the Imperial demand of racial quotas. The current building was erected in the 1890s on the site of the old Bolshoi Theatre of Saint Petersburg. As the city changed its name in the 20th century, the conservatory was renamed Petrograd Conservatory (Петроградская консерватория) and Leningrad Conservatory (Ленинградская консерватория). School alumni have included such composers as

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

Artur Kapp Artur Kapp (28 February 1878 – 14 January 1952) was an Estonians, Estonian composer. Born in Suure-Jaani, Estonia, then part of the Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire, he was the son of Joosep Kapp, who was also a classically trained mu ...

Rudolf Tobias Rudolf Tobias ( – 29 October 1918) was the first Estonian professional composer, as well as a professional organist. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. His compositions include among others piano works, string quartets and an o ...

, and

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...

, who taught at the conservatory during the 1960s. Amongst his pupils were German Okunev and Boris Tishchenko. Composer

taught at the conservatory for almost forty years, and his bronze monument is located outside the building in Theatre Square. The youngest musician ever admitted to the conservatory was four-year-old violinist

Clara Rockmore Clara Reisenberg Rockmore ( Reisenberg; 9 March 1911 – 10 May 1998) was a Litvak classical violin prodigy and a virtuoso performer of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument. She was the sister of pianist Nadia Reisenberg. Life and ...

, who later became one of the world's foremost

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

players.

Directors and rectors

(1862–1867 and 1887–1891) * Nikolai Zaremba (1867–1871) * Mikhail Azanchevsky (1871–1876) *

Karl Davydov Karl Yulievich Davydov (; ) was a Russian cellist, described by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the "czar of cellists". He was also a composer, mainly for the cello. His name also appears in various different spellings: Davydov, Davidoff, Davidov, an ...

(1876–1887) * (1891–1897) * Auguste Bernhard (1897–1905) *

Alexander Glazunov Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov ( – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was instrumental i ...

(1905–1928) (formally 1930) – rector * A. Mashirov (1930–1933) * Veniamin Buchstein (1935–1936) * Boris Zagursky (1936–1939) – rector *

Pavel Serebryakov Pavel Alekseyevich Serebryakov (; 28 February 1909 – 17 August 1977) was a Soviet classical pianist and pedagogue. Serebryakov began touring the USSR after ranking 2nd at the I National Competition (1933). A professor at the Leningrad Cons ...

(1939–1952, 1962–1977) * Yuri Briushkov (1952–1962) * Yuri Bolshiyanov (1977–1979) *

Vladislav Chernushenko Vladislav Alexandrovich Chernushenko (; born January 14, 1936) is a Soviet and Russian conductor, People's Artist of the USSR and State Prize laureate. He was educated at the , where his teacher was , and later moved to the Leningrad Conservato ...

(1979–2002) *

Sergei Roldugin Sergei Pavlovich Roldugin ( Russian: Сергей Павлович Ролдугин, born 28 September 1951 Sakhalin) is a Russian cellist and businessman based in St Petersburg. He is a close friend of Vladimir Putin. He has been implicate ...

(2002–2004) * Alexander Chaikovsky (2004–2008) *

Sergei Stadler Sergei Stadler (Russian: Сергей Стадлер) is a Russian violinist and conductor. He is currently Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Biography Laureate of the international music compet ...

(2008–2011) * Mikhail Gantvarg (2011–2015) * Aleksey Vasilyev (since 2015)

Notable faculty

Boris Abalyan Boris Georgievich Abalyan (; born 28 October 1947) is a Russian choir conductor. He founded the Lege Artis Chamber Choir in 1987 and is its chief conductor. He was born on October 28, 1947. He graduated from the Mikhail Glinka Choral College in ...

(conducting) *

Leopold Auer Leopold von Auer (; June 7, 1845July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor. Many of his students went on to become prominent concert performers and teachers. Early life and career Auer was born in ...

(

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

) *

Vladimir Bakaleinikov Vladimir Romanovich Bakaleinikov, also Bakaleynikov and Bakaleinikoff (; 3 October 1885 in Moscow – 5 November 1953 in Pittsburgh) was a Russian-American violist, music educator, conductor and composer. Life and career Bakaleinikov, the son ...

(

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

) * Louis Brassin (

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

) * Vitaly Bujanovsky (French Horn) * Georgiy Ginovker (

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

) * Edouard Grikurov (

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary d ...

) *

Artur Lemba Artur Lemba (24 September 1885 – 21 November 1963) was an Estonian composer and piano teacher, and one of the most important figures in Estonian classical music. Artur and his older brother Theodor (1876-1962) were the first professional piani ...

(piano) *

Theodor Leschetizky Theodor Leschetizky (sometimes spelled Leschetitzky; ; 22 June 1830 – 14 November 1915) was a Polish pianist, professor, and composer active in Austria-Hungary. He was born in Landshut in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then a crown land ...

(piano) *

Nikolai Malko Nicolai Andreyevich Malko (, ; 4 May 188323 June 1961) was a Russian-born American symphonic conductor. Biography Malko was born in Brailov, Vinnitsky Uyezd, Podolian Governorate, Russian Empire (today part of Ukraine) to a Ukrainian father a ...

(conducting) * Ilya Musin (conducting) * Leonid Nikolayev (piano) *

Cesare Pugni Cesare Pugni (; ; 31 May 1802, in Genoa – ) was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. He studied composition with Bonifazio Asioli and violin with Alessandro Rolla. In his early career he composed operas, symph ...

(violin,

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

) * Alexander Radvilovich (composition) *

(

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

) *

(piano, the history of piano literature) * Karl Bogdànovich Schuberth (cello) *

(composition) *

Sergei Slonimsky Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky (; 12 August 1932 – 9 February 2020) was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and musicologist. Biography He was the son of the Soviet writer Mikhail Slonimsky and nephew of the Russian-American composer N ...

(composition) *

Vladimir Sofronitsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky (or Sofronitzky; , ''Vladimir Sofronitskij''; – August 29, 1961) was a Soviet-Russian classical pianist, best known as an interpreter of Alexander Scriabin and Frédéric Chopin. His daughter is the Canadian ...

– piano *

Nikolai Tcherepnin Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin (Russian: Николай Николаевич Черепнин; – 26 June 1945) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at t ...

(conducting) * Boris Tishchenko (composition) *

Aleksandr Verzhbilovich Aleksandr Valerianovich Verzhbilovich (; ) was a Russian classical cellist of Polish descent. His name also appears as Verzhbilovic, Verzhibilovic, Vierzbilovich, Wierzbillowicz, Wierzbiłłowicz, Wierzbilovich, Wierzbilovicz, and Wierzbilowicz. ...

(

) * Zino Vinnikov (

) *

Jāzeps Vītols Jāzeps Vītols (; 26 July 1863 – 24 April 1948) was a Latvian composer, pedagogue and music critic. He is considered one of the fathers of Latvian classical music. Biography Vītols, born in Valmiera the son of a schoolteacher, began hi ...

(composition) * Hieronymus Weickmann (viola) *

Henryk Wieniawski Henryk Wieniawski (; 10 July 183531 March 1880) was a Polish virtuoso violinist, composer, and pedagogue, who is regarded amongst the most distinguished violinists in history. His younger brother Józef Wieniawski and nephew :pl:Adam Tadeusz Wien ...

(violin) * Alexander Winkler (piano) *

Anna Yesipova Anna Yesipova (born Anna Nikolayevna Yesipova; ; ) was a Russian pianist. Life Yesipova was one of Teodor Leszetycki's most brilliant pupils. She made her debut in Saint Petersburg in 1874 attracting rave reviews and the artistic admiratio ...

(piano) * Nikolai Zaremba (composition, harmony) * Anatoly Zatin (composition, orchestration, chamber music) * Leah Zelikhman (piano) *

Henri Vieuxtemps Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps (; 17 February 18206 June 1881) was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th c ...

(violin)

Notable graduates

Anton Arensky Anton Stepanovich Arensky (; – ) was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music. Biography Arensky was born into an affluent, music-loving family in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and ha ...

- composer *

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

– choreographer * Alexander Barantschik - violin * Semyon Barmotin - pianist, composer, teacher * Sidor Belarsky - operatic basso, educator *

Richard Burgin Richard Burgin (October 11, 1892 – April 29, 1981) was a Polish-American violinist, best known as associate conductor and the concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Early life Burgin was born in Siedlce, Poland, and first p ...

– violinist, conductor * Semyon Bychkov - conductor * Gayane Chebotaryan - composer, pianist, musicologist * Joseph Cherniavsky - cellist, conductor * Peter Chernobrivets – composer, musicologist *

Leonid Desyatnikov Leonid Arkadievich Desyatnikov (, born 16 October 1955 in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR). He is a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory and a member of the Composers Union of St. Petersburg. Desyatnikov has written four operas, several cantatas and n ...

– composer *

Sergei Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario an ...

– impresario * Sandra Drouker - pianist *

Heino Eller Heino Eller (7 March 188716 June 1970) was an Estonian composer and pedagogue, known as the founder of contemporary Estonian symphonic music. Life and career Eller was born in Tartu on 7 March 1887, where he took private lessons in violin and ...

– composer *

Valery Gergiev Valery Abisalovich Gergiev (, ; ; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conducting, conductor and opera company director. He is currently general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and of the Bolshoi Theatre and artistic director o ...

– conductor *

Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz (; December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin styl ...

– violinist *

Aida Huseynova Aida Huseynova ( – 20 June 2022) was a musicologist, pianist, and ethnomusicologist from Azerbaijan. She spent the last decade and a half of her career teaching in the Music in General Studies program at Indiana University Bloomington and serv ...

– musicologist and ethnomusicologist *

Alexander Ilyinsky Alexander Alexandrovich Ilyinsky (; 23 February 1920) was a Russian music teacher and composer, best known for the ''Lullaby (Berceuse)'', Op. 13, No. 7, from his orchestral suite "Noure and Anitra", and for the opera ''The Fountain of Bakhchisar ...

– music teacher and composer *

Mariss Jansons Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 1 December 2019) was a Latvian Conducting, conductor, best known for his interpretations of Gustav Mahler, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Strauss, and Russian composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, ...

– conductor *

Alfrēds Kalniņš Alfrēds Bruno Jānis Kalniņš (23 August 1879, in Cēsis, Governorate of Livonia – 23 December 1951, in Riga, Latvian SSR) was a Latvian composer, organist, pedagogue, music critic and conductor; the founder of national Latvian opera. Kaln ...

– composer, organist *

– composer *

Leokadiya Kashperova Leokadiya Aleksandrovna Kashperova (; 16 May 1872 – 3 December 1940) was a Russian pianist and Romantic composer. She was the piano teacher of composer Igor Stravinsky. Life Early life and education Leokadiya Kashperova was born in Lyubim, nea ...

- pianist, composer *

Yuri Khanon Yuri Khanon is a pen name of Yuri Feliksovich Soloviev-Savoyarov (),Encyclope ...

– composer, writer, laureate of the

European Film Awards The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mos ...

. *

Eduard Khil Eduard Anatolyevich Khil (; 4 September 1934 – 4 June 2012), often anglicized as Edward Hill, was a Russian baritone singer. Khil became known to international audiences in 2010, when a 1976 clip of him singing a non-lexical vocable versio ...

– singer * Vladimir Khomyakov – pianist *

Nadine Koutcher Nadine Koutcher (, born 18 May 1983) is a Belarusian opera singer. A dramatic coloratura soprano, she was the winner of the 2015 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Life Koutcher was born in Minsk in 1983. In 2003 she graduated from ...

– opera singer *

Gustav Kross Gustav Kross () was a Russian pianist and teacher. He is primarily remembered for being the soloist of the first, negatively-received Russian performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. Biography Gustav Gustavovich Kross was born in Saint ...

- pianist * Miroslav Kultyshev - pianist * Eugene Levinson - Double bassist *

Anatoly Lyadov Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (; ) was a Russian composer, teacher and conductor. Biography Lyadov was born in 1855 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire, into a family of eminent Russian musicians. He was taught informally by his conductor s ...

– composer, teacher, conductor * Sasha Mäkilä – Finnish conductor *

Witold Maliszewski Witold Maliszewski (, ; 20 July 1873 – 18 July 1939) was a Polish composer, founder of Odessa Conservatory, and a professor of Warsaw Conservatory. Biography Maliszewski was born in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). He graduat ...

– composer *

Nathan Milstein Nathan Mironovich Milstein ( – December 21, 1992) was a Russian and American virtuoso violinist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for wo ...

– violinist *

Nevsky String Quartet Nevsky String Quartet (Quinten Quartet, until 1998) is a string quartet based in St. Petersburg, Russia. They are noted for their award-winning performances of Russian music and their performances of contemporary music. History and Repertoire The ...

Tomomi Nishimoto Tomomi Nishimoto (西本智実) is a Japanese conductor. Biography Tomomi Nishimoto was born in Osaka, Japan on 22 April 1970. Her experience learning to play the piano from her mother at the age of three as well as her mother's musical influence ...

- conductor * Nikolai Obukhov – composer *

Leo Ornstein Leo Ornstein (born ''Lev Ornshteyn''; ; – February 24, 2002) was an American Experimental music, experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own innovative and ev ...

– composer * Gavriil Popov - composer *

– composer, pianist, conductor * Gal Rasché - conductor, pianist, teacher *

Nadia Reisenberg Nadia Reisenberg Sherman (14 July 1904 – 10 June 1983) was an American pianist of Lithuanian birth. Biography Nadia Reisenberg was born in Vilnius to a Jewish family. Her parents were Aaron and Rachel Reisenberg., adapted from Dr. Anne K. Gray ...

- pianist *

– violin prodigy, theremin performer * Livery Antonovich Sacchetti – Russian music historian * David Serero - opera singer * Ilya Serov - trumpeter *

Don Shirley Donald Walbridge Shirley (January 29, 1927 – April 6, 2013) was an American classical and jazz pianist and composer. He recorded many albums for Cadence Records during the 1950s and 1960s, experimenting with jazz with a classical influen ...

- pianist, arranger, composer *

– composer, pianist * Nadezhda Simonyan - composer * Kuldar Sink — composer, flautist *

– pianist *

Grigory Sokolov Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov (; born 18 April 1950) is a Russian pianist with Spain, Spanish citizenship. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque music, Baroque period such as Johann Seba ...

– pianist * Lyubov Streicher - composer *

– composer *

Yuri Temirkanov Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov (; ; 10 December 1938 – 2 November 2023) was a Soviet and Russian conductor, named a People's Artist of the USSR. Early life Born in 1938 in the North Caucasus city of Nalchik, Temirkanov attended the Saint Petersburg ...

– conductor *

Dimitri Tiomkin Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a Russian and American film composer and conductor. Classically trained in Saint Petersburg before the Bolshevik Revolution, he moved to Berlin and then New York City after t ...

– pianist, composer * Elena Tsallagova – soprano * Vera Vinogradova-pianist, composer * Zino Vinnikov – violinist *

Solomon Volkov Solomon Moiseyevich Volkov (; born 17 April 1944) is a Russian journalist and musicologist. He is best known for ''Testimony'', which was published in 1979 following his emigration from the Soviet Union in 1976. According to him, the book was the ...

– musicologist *

Ivan Yershov Ivan Vasiliyevitch Yershov or Ershov () (November 8, 1867 – November 21, 1943), PAU, was a Soviet and Russian opera singer (Heldentenor). He earned renown for his brilliant performances at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, performing ...

– singer *

– pianist * Mikhail Youdin – composer *

Maria Yudina Maria Veniaminovna Yudina ( ; 189919 November 1970) was a Soviet pianist. Early life and education Maria Yudina was born to a Jewish family in Nevel, Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire. She was the fourth child of Veniamin Yudin, a renowne ...

– pianist * Stefania Anatolyevna Zaranek - composer * Anatoly Zatin - composer, pianist, conductor * Valery Zhelobinsky – pianist, composer *

Efrem Zimbalist Efrem Zimbalist (April 21 .S. April 9 1889 – February 22, 1985) was a Russian and American concert violinist, composer, conducting, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music. Early life Efrem Zimbalist was born on April 9, 1 ...

- violinist * Emina Kamberović – ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher *

Edina Papo Edina Papo, born Hadžirović, on 9 April 1958 in Sarajevo. She was the artistic director of the Sarajevo Ballet. As a choreographer and pedagogue, she has made great contributions to the redevelopment and renewal of ballet art in post-Bosnian ...

– ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher

References

External links

Official website
(in Russian, French and English)

{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1862 1862 establishments in the Russian Empire Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg Music schools in Russia Universities and colleges in Saint Petersburg

History

Directors and rectors

Notable faculty

Notable graduates

See also

References

External links