Nikolai Zaremba

Nikolai or Nicolaus Ivanovich von Zaremba (12 June [O.S. 31 May] 1821 – 8 April [O.S. 27 March] 1879) was a Russian musical theorist, teacher and composer. His most famous student was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who became his pupil 1861. Others included Dostojevsky's nephews, the children of his brother Mikhail and Vasily Safonov. Until 2010 almost nobody knew what he had composed.

Zaremba was born in a Polish noble family on the family estate Ozupiene in the countryside of Vitebsk Governorate, at one time Polish Livonia, nowadays Ludza Municipality in Latvia. He went to grammar school in Daugavpils. During his law study (1840-1844) in Saint-Petersburg University Anton Gerke was his piano teacher; Johann Benjamin Gross became his cello and theory teacher. He composed a Concert-Ouverture for big orchestra (1842), influenced by Beethoven (the premiere was held in the hall of the University of December 28, 1842, conducted by Karl Schubert); around 1843 a mazurka, influenced by Chopin.

Zaremba was appointed at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He escaped from a transport to Siberia after he had joined the utopian Petrashevsky Circle, just like Dostojevski. When his father, a colonel in the army, had died Zaremba changed his goal.

In 1852 he moved to Berlin and studied composition under Adolf Bernhard Marx. He met with Franz Liszt and Hans von Bülow, a famous director. In 1854 he left Germany. Zaremba started a career as cantor of the Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, after he married the Lutheran Jacobine Philippine Adeleide von Klugen. In 1860 he joined the Russian Musical Society.

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