Alexander Siloti
At the age of 12, Leopold van der Pals started his musical training under his grandfather, Julius Johannsen, a Professor of counterpoint and director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (Johannsen was himself a student of Felix Mendelssohn and Niels W. Gade). The van der Pals home was open to artists and musicians, and here, Leopold van der Pals heard concerts with Modest Tchaikovsky, Anton Arensky, Alexander Glazunov, Alexander Siloti, Pablo Casals, and many others.