nezhdanova was the dedicatee of sergei rachmaninoff's "vocalise", and she was the first performer of the arrangement for soprano and orchestra, with serge koussevitzky conducting. she created a number of operatic roles. after the 1917 russian revolution she stayed on at the bolshoi, unlike some of her fellow opera singers, who left their native country for the west. in 1936, she began to teach singing in moscow and was appointed a professor at the city's conservatory in 1943.