Tchaikovsky
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Nikolai Kashkin (1837–1920)

Nikolai Kashkin

Russian musician, teacher, music critic, and friend and colleague of Tchaikovsky (b. 27 November/9 December 1839 in Voronezh; d. 15 March 1920 in Kazan), born Nikolai Dmitrievich Kashkin (Николай Дмитриевич Кашкин, Nikolaj Dmitrievič Kaškin, Nikolay Dmitriyevich Kashkin).

Nikolai Kashkin did not come from a musical family (he was the son of a bookseller), but he taught himself music, and by the age of thirteen he was giving piano lessons. In 1860 he studied piano under Aleksandr Diubiuk, and in 1863 he became a tutor in the musical classes arranged by the Russian Musical Society. In 1865 he married Elizaveta Kul'neva.

When the Moscow Conservatory opened in 1866, he worked alongside Tchaikovsky as professor of piano and of music theory and history, serving from 1866 to 1896 and from 1905 to 1908.

He was a prolific music critic, contributing primarily to the Russian Register (Русские ведомости) and the Moscow Register (Московские ведомости), sometimes under the pseudonym "Nikolai Dmitriev" (Николай Дмитриев). He also produced a number of books on Russian music, as well as some of the earliest reminiscences about Tchaikovsky.

Nikolai Kashkin was a close friend of Tchaikovsky, and did much to promote his music.

Tchaikovsky's works dedicated to Nikolai Kashkin:

• Not a Word, O My Friend—No. 2 of the Six Romances, Op. 6 (1869).

Tchaikovsky's correspondence with Nikolai Kashkin:

• 6 letters from Tchaikovsky to Nikolai Kashkin have survived, dating from 1877 to 1891.