Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Hello! My name is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and I was a composer. I was born a long time ago, on May 7th, 1840, in a small town in Russia called Votkinsk. Even when I was a little boy, my head was always filled with music. I loved to sit at the piano and make up my own songs. My family hoped I would grow up to work for the government, and for a while, I tried, but my heart belonged to music.

When I turned 21 years old, I made a big decision. In 1862, I went to a special school called the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to learn everything about music. After I graduated, I became a music teacher myself! For many years, a very kind woman named Nadezhda von Meck, who loved my music, sent me money so I could stop teaching and spend all my time writing beautiful new songs. We wrote many letters to each other, but we agreed to never meet in person.

I loved telling stories with my music. I wrote the music for a ballet called Swan Lake in 1877, about a princess who is turned into a beautiful swan. Maybe you have heard of another one of my ballets? It's called The Nutcracker, which I finished in 1892. It's a magical story with a Sugar Plum Fairy and a handsome prince that many people love to watch during the holidays. My music became so well-known that in 1891, I even traveled all the way to America to conduct my music at the opening of a famous concert hall in New York City called Carnegie Hall.

I spent my life sharing the melodies in my heart with the world. I lived to be 53 years old. Even though I am no longer here, my music is. Every time a dancer twirls to the music of Sleeping Beauty or a family watches the magic of The Nutcracker at Christmastime, my melodies are still telling stories. And knowing my music continues to bring joy to people everywhere makes me very happy.