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Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a famous music school in Moscow, Russia. It has big concert halls where people come to listen to music!
The Moscow Conservatory is a school for musicians in the center of Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1866, and its first director was the pianist Nikolai Rubinstein. Its Great Hall, opened in 1901, is known for its wonderful sound.
The Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, founded in 1866 on the initiative of the pianist and conductor Nikolai Rubinstein, its first director, is one of Russia's leading schools of music. Its ensemble on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, rebuilt from 1895 to designs by the architect Vasily Zagorsky and enlarged in 1923, joins three teaching buildings and five concert halls, among them the Great Hall of 1901. It has carried Pyotr Tchaikovsky's name since 1940.
Photo: Andrey Filippov 安德烈 from Moscow, Russia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover the Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a school for people who play and write music. It is in Moscow, the capital of Russia.
It also has concert halls. People come to hear music there!
A conservatory is a college for musicians. The Moscow Conservatory stands on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, in the center of Moscow. Students learn to perform, compose and study music there.
Today it is a group of buildings: three teaching buildings and five concert halls. Students, teachers and visiting musicians give concerts in its halls.
The conservatory calls itself one of Russia's leading institutions of higher musical education and a center of musical performance, composition and scholarship. Its halls host concerts by students, professors, alumni and guest musicians.
Its museum describes the site at Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street as an architectural ensemble joining three teaching buildings and five concert halls, a 'musical compound' that grew up over time rather than all at once.
- Where
- Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street 13/6, Moscow, Russia
- Founded
- 1866
- Great Hall opened
- 1901
- Architect
- Vasily Zagorsky, with Aleksandr Nisselsohn
A music school since 1866
The school opened long ago, in 1866. A pianist named Nikolai Rubinstein started it.
Later, the great composer Tchaikovsky taught there!
The conservatory was founded in 1866 thanks to Nikolai Rubinstein, a pianist and conductor, who became its first director. One of its early teachers was the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Since 1940 it has been named after him.
At first it used an older house on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, which the Russian Musical Society rented in 1871 and bought in 1878. As the school grew, the house became too small.
The conservatory was established in 1866 on the initiative of Nikolai Rubinstein (1835–1881), pianist, conductor and public figure, its first director. Pyotr Tchaikovsky was among its early professors, and in 1940 it was officially named after him.
The land at Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street 13 had belonged from 1766 to Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. A stone house built there in 1780 was rebuilt in 1795; written testimony credits the design to the architect Vasily Bazhenov. The Russian Musical Society rented it in 1871 and bought it for the conservatory in 1878.
A new home for music
The music school needed more room. So builders made new buildings.
They worked on them for eight years!
In 1893 the Moscow branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society decided to build a new home for the conservatory. The architect Vasily Zagorsky designed it, helped by the architect Aleksandr Nisselsohn.
The first stone was laid on 27 June 1895, and building went on for eight years. Zagorsky kept only the front of the old house, with its rounded middle part, which became the symbol of the Great Hall.
In 1893 the Moscow branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society decided to replace the old building. Academician of architecture Vasily Zagorsky (1846–1912) designed and led the work with his assistant Aleksandr Nisselsohn; the sculptor Aleksandr Aladyin made the outer decoration. The foundation stone was laid on 27 June 1895, and construction lasted eight years under the director Vasily Safonov.
The residential building (now the Second Teaching Building) was finished in 1897, and the First Teaching Building and the Small Hall in 1898. From the old building Zagorsky kept only the façade with its central half-rotunda, which became the emblem of the Great Hall.
The Great Hall and its organ
The main hall is called the Great Hall. It has an organ, a musical instrument with many pipes.
Music sounds wonderful in this hall!
The Great Hall opened in 1901. For musicians and listeners, its most important feature is its sound: it has even been called 'an enormous Stradivarius violin'.
Its organ was built in Paris in 1899 by the French company A. Cavaillé-Coll and was shown at the World's Fair in Paris in 1900. In 1954 a statue of Tchaikovsky by the sculptor Vera Mukhina was unveiled in front of the hall.
The Grand (Great) Hall was inaugurated on 7 April 1901 (20 April, New Style), with a concert conducted by the director, Vasily Safonov. Its museum page says its remarkable acoustics have earned it the nickname 'an enormous Stradivarius violin'.
Its organ was made in 1899 by the French firm A. Cavaillé-Coll in Paris; the museum says it was acknowledged as one of the best organs in the world at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, and it was given by the railway entrepreneur Sergey von Dervis. In 1923 the conservatory gained a third teaching building and a concert hall at Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street 11.
- Concert halls
- 5
- Teaching buildings
- 3
- Great Hall organ
- Cavaillé-Coll, Paris, 1899
Lit up at night
In this photo, it is night. Lights shine up on the building, so it glows!
You can see tall columns and many windows.
This photo was taken on 2 January 2018, at night. Lamps shine up the walls of the conservatory, lighting a curved front with tall columns on the left and rows of windows between tall pillars on the right.
More than 150 years after it began, the conservatory still teaches musicians and fills its halls with concerts.
The photograph (2 January 2018, by Andrey Filippov) looks up at the conservatory's lit façades at night: a curved, columned front on the left and a long wall with pilasters, carved capitals and tall windows on the right.
The conservatory describes its mission as educating professional musicians, supporting artistic and scholarly work and contributing to musical culture in Russia and internationally, more than 150 years after its founding.
Amazing facts
-
People say the Great Hall sounds like a giant violin!
The Great Hall's sound is so good that it has been called 'an enormous Stradivarius violin'.
For its acoustics, the Great Hall has been called 'an enormous Stradivarius violin'.
-
The great composer Tchaikovsky was a teacher at this school!
Pyotr Tchaikovsky was one of the conservatory's early teachers, and since 1940 it has carried his name.
Tchaikovsky was among the conservatory's early professors; in 1940 the institution was officially named after him.
-
The Great Hall's organ came all the way from Paris!
The Great Hall's organ was built in Paris in 1899 and was shown at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris.
The organ, built by A. Cavaillé-Coll in Paris in 1899, was shown at the 1900 Paris World's Fair before coming to the Great Hall.
Words to know
- conservatory
- a school or college where people study music
- concert hall
- a large room or building made for listening to music
- organ
- a large musical instrument that makes sound by blowing air through many pipes
- acoustics
- how sound travels and is heard in a room
- composer
- a person who writes music
- rotunda
- a round building or part of a building, often with columns
Discovery challenge
-
What do people learn at the Moscow Conservatory?
What kind of school is the Moscow Conservatory?
The Moscow Conservatory is an institution of higher education in which field?
- Music
- Cooking
- Swimming
Show the answer
Music
Music!
A school for music.
Music.
-
Which great composer is the school named after?
Since 1940, the conservatory has been named after which composer?
Which early professor of the conservatory has given it his name since 1940?
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Ludwig van Beethoven
Show the answer
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky!
Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
-
When did the music school begin?
In which year was the Moscow Conservatory founded?
In which year was the conservatory founded on Nikolai Rubinstein's initiative?
- 1866
- 1766
- 1966
Show the answer
1866
1866!
1866.
1866.
-
What big instrument is in the Great Hall?
Which instrument, built in Paris in 1899, stands in the Great Hall?
What did the French firm A. Cavaillé-Coll build in 1899 for the Great Hall?
- An organ
- A drum
- A harp
Show the answer
An organ
An organ!
An organ.
Its organ.
-
Who was the school's first director?
Which pianist and conductor was the conservatory's first director?
On whose initiative was the conservatory established in 1866?
- Nikolai Rubinstein
- Vasily Zagorsky
- Vera Mukhina
Show the answer
Nikolai Rubinstein
Nikolai Rubinstein!
Nikolai Rubinstein.
Nikolai Rubinstein, its first director.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain what a conservatory is and how students learn music there.
- Describe why the shape and materials of a hall change how music sounds.
- Explain how an organ makes sound with pipes and air.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why do you think people call the Great Hall 'an enormous Stradivarius violin'?
- Why might a music school also need concert halls?
- The architect kept the old front of the house when he built the new school. Why might people keep part of an old building?
Try at home or in class
- Clap in a small room, a large room and outdoors, and talk about how the sound changes.
- Listen to a short piece by Tchaikovsky and draw what the music makes you imagine.
Key vocabulary: conservatory, concert hall, organ, acoustics, composer, rotunda
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- About Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory , Moscow Conservatory
- The Architectural Ensemble of the Moscow Conservatory , Moscow Conservatory Museum
- The Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory , Moscow Conservatory Museum
- File:Moscow, Bolshaya Nikitskaya 15 (24602576737).jpg , Wikimedia Commons
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.