BIOGRAPHY

OF
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Who Was Tchaikovsky?

• Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born

on May 7, 1840, in Vyatka, Russia. His work
was first publicly performed in 1865. In
1868, his First Symphony was well-received.
In 1874, he established himself with Piano
Concerto No.1 in B-flat Minor. Tchaikovsky
resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in
1878, and spent the rest of his career
composing yet more prolifically. He died in
St. Petersburg on November 6, 1893.
What Is Tchaikovsky Best Known
For?

•Tchaikovsky is most celebrated

for his ballets, specifically
Swan Lake, The Sleeping
Beauty and The Nutcracker.
What Musical Instruments Did
Tchaikovsky Play?

•When he was just five years

old, Tchaikovsky began taking
piano lessons.
Tchaikovsky's Compositions
• Operas
• Pyotr Tchaikovsky's work was first publicly
performed in 1865, with Johann Strauss the
Younger conducting Tchaikovsky's
Characteristic Dances at a Pavlovsk concert.
In 1868, Tchaikovsky's First Symphony was
well-received when it was publicly performed
in Moscow. The following year, his first
opera, The Voyevoda, made its way to the stage
— with little fanfare.
• Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow
Conservatory in 1878 to focus his efforts
entirely on composing. As a result, he spent the
remainder of his career composing more
prolifically than ever. His collective body of
work constitutes 169 pieces, including
symphonies, operas, ballets, concertos, cantatas
and songs. Among his most famed late works are
the ballets The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and The
Nutcracker (1892).
Early Life
• Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840,
in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka, Russia. He was the second eldest of his
parents' six surviving offspring. Tchaikovsky's father, Ilya, worked as a
mine inspector and metal works manager.
When he was just five years old, Tchaikovsky began taking piano
lessons. Although he displayed an early passion for music, his parents
hoped that he would grow up to work in the civil service. At the age of
10, Tchaikovsky began attending the Imperial School of Jurisprudence,
a boarding school in St. Petersburg. His mother, Alexandra, died of
cholera in 1854, when he was 14 years old. In 1859, Tchaikovsky
honored his parents' wishes by taking up a bureau clerk post with the
Ministry of Justice — a post he would hold for four years, during which
time he became increasingly fascinated with music.
 Personal Life
• Struggling with societal pressures to repress his
homosexuality, in 1877, Tchaikovsky married a young
music student named Antonina Milyukova. The
marriage was a catastrophe, with Tchaikovsky
abandoning his wife within weeks of the wedding.
During a nervous breakdown, he unsuccessfully
attempted to commit suicide, and eventually fled
abroad.

• Tchaikovsky could afford to resign from the Moscow

Conservatory in 1878, thanks to the patronage of a
wealthy widow named Nadezhda von Meck. She
provided him with a monthly allowance until 1890;
oddly, their arrangement stipulated that they would
never meet.
Death
• Tchaikovsky died in St. Petersburg on
November 6, 1893. While the cause of
his death was officially declared as
cholera, some of his biographers
believe that he committed suicide
after the humiliation of a sex scandal
trial. However, only oral (no written)
documentation exists to support this
theory.