Zverev, Nikolai

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Zverev, Nikolai

Zverev, Nikolai, noted Russian piano pedagogue; b. Volokalamsk, 1832; d. Moscow, Oct. 12,1893. He was a student of Alexander Dubuc in Moscow and Henselt in St. Petersburg, and also took harmony lessons with Tchaikovsky. He established in Moscow a music boarding school for young pianists; among these inmates were Rachmaninoff and Siloti. Scriabin also took piano lessons with Zverev, although he did not lodge in his music school. From 1870 to his death, Zverev taught piano at the Moscow Cons. Zverev was highly esteemed as a pedagogue, and was one of the most prominent representatives of the Russian pianistic method, which emphasized songful melody and freedom of hand movement.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire