WIKIPEDIA:

“ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (); (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский; tr. Pyotr Ilyich Chaykovsky) (May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893 ) was a Russian composer whose works included symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, and chamber music. Some of these are amongst the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, which he bolstered with appearances as a guest conductor later in his career in Europe and the United States. One of these appearances was at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1891. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884 by Tsar Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension in the late 1880s.
Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a musical career in Russia at that time, and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from where he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five, with whom his [......] ”

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