Study of Music
Enrolled in the newly-found St. Petersburg Conservatory, studying harmony and counterpoint.
Published first composition, a waltz in F major.
Graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory with a silver medal.
Moved in with Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory.
Moved to Moscow to teach music theory at the Moscow Conservatory.
Early Compositions
Appointed Professor of Music Theory at the Moscow Conservatory.
Completed Characteristic Dances, first published work.
Premiered first symphony, Winter Daydreams.
Promoted to professor at the Moscow Conservatory.
Completed first opera, The Voyevoda.
Met Herman Laroche, who become a lifelong friend and correspondent.
Premiered Romeo and Juliet, an overture-fantasia.
Became lifelong friends with new student Sergei Taneyev.
Traveled to Bayreuth to attend the first Bayreuth Festival.
Premiered the opera The Oprichnik.
Premiered the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor.
Completed Symphony No. 3 in D major.
Premiered the opera Vakula the Smith.
Completed the ballet Swan Lake.
Completed Piano Sonata in G major, only piano sonata.
Married former student Antonina Milyukova, but separated after a few weeks.
Later Years
Completed the Serenade for Strings.
Conducted own works in Prague, Leipzig, Hamburg, Berlin, Warsaw, Paris and London.
Completed the ballet The Sleeping Beauty.
Begun correspondance with Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich.
Conducted on his first European tour.
Conducted at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Completed the opera The Queen of Spades.
Begun work on a new symphony, which would become the Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Pathétique.
Visited the United States, where he conducted at the grand opening of Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Begun work on the ballet The Nutcracker.
Completed the one-act opera Iolanta.
Worked on his 3rd piano concerto
Begun work on his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Completed the chorus-prologue 'From the Dark Forces'
Granted an honorary Doctor of Music degree by the University of Cambridge.
Received an honorary degree from Cambridge University.
Premiered symphony No.6 in B minor, Pathétique, in St. Petersburg.
Premiered the Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Pathétique, in St. Petersburg, with the composer conducting.
Conducted Pathétique again, at the second performance.
Died suddenly from cholera, although some attribute his death to suicide.
Buried in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, near the graves of fellow composers Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, and Modest Mussorgsky.