Tchaikovsky
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Nikolai Kashkin

Nikolai Dmitrievich Kashkin (Николай Дмитриевич Кашкин) was a Russian musician, teacher, music critic, and friend of the composer, also known by the pseudonym Nikolai Dmitriev (Николай Дмитриев), born on 27 November/9 December 1839 at Voronezh, Russia.

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 an prolific music critic, contributing primarily to the Russian gazette (Русские ведомости) and the Moscow gazette (Московские ведомости), sometimes under the pseudonym "Nikolai Dmitriev". 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. In 1869 the composer dedicated his song Not a word, o my friend (No. 2 of the Six Romances, Op. 6) to Kashkin.

Nikolai Kashkin died in Kazan' on 15 March 1920, aged 80.