Saint Petersburg Conservatory
Laroche studied piano with Alexandre Dubuque at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. After graduating from the Conservatory in 1866, he worked as a professor of music history and theory at the Moscow Conservatory (1867–1870, 1883–1886) and the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (1872–1875 and 1879). He was a lifelong friend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.