Saint Petersburg Conservatory

The Saint Petersburg Conservatory is a famous music school in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Its full name is N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory (Russian: Санкт-Петербургская государственная консерватория имени Н.А. Римского-Корсакова). In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 teaching members and 1,400 students. History The conservatory was founded in 1862 by the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. When he resigned in 1867, he was followed by Nikolai Zaremba. The great composer Rimsky-Korsakov joined the teaching staff in 1871. The conservatory was named after him in 1944. In 1887, Rubinstein returned to the Conservatory to try to improve it. Students who were not very good had to leave, and he also got rid of some of the professors and made the entrance examinations harder. He resigned again in 1891. The building we see today was built in the 1890s where the Bolshoi Theatre of Saint Petersburg had stood. It still has the grand staircase and landing from that historic theatre. As the city changed its name in the 20th century, the conservatory was renamed Petrograd Conservatory (Петроградская консерватория) and then the Leningrad Conservatory (Ленинградская консерватория). Today, it is a famous Russian composition school whose graduates have included great composers such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich. During the 1960s, Shostakovich taught at the conservatory, which made it even more famous. Directors and rectors Anton Rubinstein (1862 — 1867) Nikolai Zaremba (1867 — 1871) Mikhail Azanchevsky (1871 — 1876) Karl Davydov (1876 — 1887) Anton Rubinstein (1887 — 1891) Alexander Glazunov (1905 — 1928, as of 1918 — rector) Notable teachers Leopold Auer (violin) Ilya Musin (conducting) Leonid Nikolayev (piano) Cesare Pugni (violin, counterpoint, composition) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (composition, orchestration) Anton Rubinstein (piano, the history of piano literature) Nikolai Tcherepnin (conducting) Sergei Slonimsky (composition) Leah Zelikhman (piano) Notable graduates George Balanchine – choreographer Richard Burgin - violinist, conductor Sergei Diaghilev - impressario Valery Gergiev Jascha Heifetz - violinist Alexander Ilyinsky Mariss Jansons Artur Kapp Eduard Khil - singer and internet sensation Miroslav Kultyshev Anatoly Lyadov Witold Maliszewski Nathan Milstein - violinist Anna Netrebko Sergei Prokofiev - composer Gal Rasche - conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff - pianist, composer Clara Rockmore Dmitri Shostakovich - composer Grigory Sokolov - pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky Yuri Temirkanov - conductor Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - composer Solomon Volkov - musicologist Ivan Yershov - singer Anna Yesipova - pianist Maria Yudina - pianist Valery Viktorovich Zhelobinsky - pianist, composer Related pages Moscow Conservatory Other websites Official site Archived 2008-04-27 at the Wayback Machine