Peter Tchaikovsky (Composer)| Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born
on May 7, 1840 at Votkinsk, in the government of Vyatka, Russia.
He was close to his family - his father (a mine inspector,) his
mother, four brothers, and a sister. At the age of five, he
began to study piano, soon revealing his amazing gifts. It
wasn‘t until he was 21, however, that he began to study music
seriously. In 1863, Tchaikovsky entered the St. Petersburg
Conservatory and undertook some private training. The young
Tchaikovsky was a master at improvisation, but so unschooled he
was unaware of such simple musical tenets as the possibility of
modulating to different keys. Tchaikovsky frequently attended
the opera and fell in love with the music of Mozart. His
diligence became apparent when his composition teacher, Anton
Rubinstein, assigned variations as homework. Tchaikovsky sat up
all night and prepared 200. In 1866, Tchaikovsky moved
permanently to Moscow where he accepted a teaching position in a
new conservatory established by Anton