Nicholay Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, (1844-1908), was a Russian composer and musical theorist, one of the greatest composers of the Russian nationalist school, and a great master of orchestration. Rimsky-Korsakov was born on March 18, 1844, in Tikhvin, near Novgorod. He studied piano as a child. In 1856 he was enrolled at the Naval Academy at Saint Petersburg but continued his musical studies. In 1861 Rimsky-Korsakov became an associate of the Russian composer Mily Balakirev, the dominant figure of a group of young, nationally conscious Russian composers including Aleksandr Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, and César Cui. Together with Rimsky-Korsakov this...