Nikolai Zverev

Nikolai Sergeyevich Zverev (Russian: Николай Серге́евич Зве́рев, sometimes transliterated Nikolai Zveref; 1832 – 12 October [O.S. 30 September] 1893) was a Russian pianist and teacher known for his pupils Alexander Siloti, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Scriabin, Konstantin Igumnov, Alexander Goldenweiser, and others.

Zverev was born in 1832 in Volokolamsk, Russia, into an family. He attended Moscow State University, studying mathematics and physics, while taking piano lessons from Alexander Dubuque (1812–98). He did not graduate, because he inherited a large family fortune, and moved to Saint Petersburg to become a civil servant. While there, he continued to study piano with Adolf von Henselt, who emphasized the importance of practice, which was the basis of Zverev's own strict regime that he required of his students. Unsatisfied with civil service, and persuaded by Dubuque, he returned to Moscow in 1867 to become a private teacher. In 1870, Nikolai Rubinstein asked him to teach at the Moscow Conservatory, which he did. At one point, he also studied harmony with Tchaikovsky. Zverev never married, and he may have been homosexual. Zverev died at the age of 61, in 1893.

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