Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804–1857) was a Russian composer regarded as the founder of the Russian classical-music tradition. His operas and orchestral works gave later composers, from the members of the Mighty Handful to Pyotr Tchaikovsky, a national idiom on which to build.

Glinka was born on his family's estate at Novospasskoye in Smolensk Province. He studied at the Noble Boarding School attached to the Main Pedagogical Institute in Saint Petersburg and took piano lessons from John Field. After several years as a minor civil servant he travelled to Italy and Germany between 1830 and 1834, studying counterpoint with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin and absorbing Italian operatic style.

He returned to Russia and produced his first opera, A Life for the Tsar, premiered in Saint Petersburg in 1836. It was the first Russian opera to enter the international repertoire and established a model of historical national drama. His second opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila, based on a poem by Aleksandr Pushkin, followed in 1842 and proved more adventurous in its harmony and orchestration. His later orchestral works include the Kamarinskaya, the Spanish Overture, and A Night in Madrid.

Glinka spent his final years travelling between Saint Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin and died in Berlin while again studying with Dehn. His remains were returned to Saint Petersburg.

The given name Mikhail is the Russian form of Michael, from the Hebrew Mikha'el, meaning 'who is like God'. It is among the most common masculine names in the Russian-speaking world. He bore it as the first composer his country claimed as its own.