Tchaikovsky facts for kids: 20 things to know

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer who lived from 1840 to 1893. Here are 20 facts about him for a school project, a poster, or a composer study. Each one is short enough to copy onto a card.

His childhood

1. He was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, a factory town far to the east of Moscow.

2. His father was an engineer who ran an ironworks.

3. He started piano lessons at five.

4. His governess remembered that music kept playing in his head at night and would not let him sleep.

5. He learned French and German from his governess when he was small.

6. At ten, he was sent to a boarding school in St. Petersburg that trained boys for government work.

Becoming a composer

7. He finished school and worked as a government clerk for a few years.

8. In his early twenties, he signed up at a new music school in St. Petersburg. He was in its first class to finish.

9. He taught at the music school in Moscow for 12 years. That school now carries his name.

10. For 13 years, a wealthy widow named Nadezhda von Meck sent him money so that he could write full time. They wrote more than a thousand letters to each other and agreed never to meet.

His music

11. He wrote three ballets: Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.

12. He wrote six numbered symphonies. He led the first performance of the sixth a few days before he died.

13. In The Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy dances to the celesta, a keyboard instrument that sounds like small bells. He heard one in Paris and had it sent to Russia in secret, so that no other composer would use it first.

14. The 1812 Overture has church bells and real cannon fire written into the score. He did not think much of the piece himself.

15. Two famous musicians told him that his concertos did not suit their instruments. Both pieces are loved by audiences today.

16. He loved the music of Mozart above all others, and he wrote a suite in Mozart’s honor.

17. He wrote a book of 24 short piano pieces for children.

His habits and travels

18. He took a walk of about two hours every day, in any weather.

19. He shared a birthday with the composer Brahms. Tchaikovsky did not care for Brahms’s music. When the two met in 1888, he found that he liked the man.

20. In 1891, he sailed to New York and conducted at the opening concerts of Carnegie Hall. He saw Niagara Falls on the same trip.

One more

He died in St. Petersburg in 1893, at 53. His house in the town of Klin is a museum, and his piano is still there.

Four things people get wrong

“The Nutcracker was a hit from the start.” It was not. The first reviews in 1892 were mixed. It became a December tradition many years later.

“The 1812 Overture is about an American war.” It is not. He wrote it to mark Russia’s defense against Napoleon’s army in 1812.

“Swan Lake was loved at once.” The first staging, in 1877, did not go well. The version most companies dance was made in 1895, after he died.

“He and his patron were friends who met often.” They never met. That was their agreement.

Things to do together

Make a poster. Pick five facts. Write each one in a box and draw a picture for it.

Quiz night. Turn ten of the facts into questions. Take turns asking them.

Find the celesta. Play “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” Raise a hand each time the bell sound plays. Read the celesta for kids.

Wait for the cannons. Play the last three minutes of the 1812 Overture. Count the cannon shots. See the 1812 Overture for kids.

Write a letter. Tchaikovsky and his patron were friends on paper alone. Write a letter to someone you have never met.

Print and play

Print the Tchaikovsky fact sheet. Read Tchaikovsky for kids for his life story and the pieces to play first. Follow the ballet with the Nutcracker listening map. Test what you know with the composer quiz.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.