Alexander Nikolsky was a Russian church music figure, writer, composer of sacred music, and teacher. He was born on 4 July 1874 in the village of Vladykino, Penza Governorate, and died in Moscow on 19 March 1943.
After studying at the Tikhon Spiritual School and Penza Theological Seminary, he graduated from the Moscow Synodal School in 1897, qualifying as a choir director and singing teacher. He studied musical theory, counterpoint, fugue, and form with Sergei Taneyev at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1900 he continued his studies at the Moscow Music and Drama School, where he studied composition with Alexander Ilyinsky and orchestral conducting; he graduated in 1902.
Nikolsky taught at several Moscow schools and institutes and directed the regent courses established in the city in 1909. In 1928 he joined the choral department of the Moscow Conservatory, where he became a professor in 1935 and remained until his death. His teaching included choral direction, choral literature, music literacy, choral arranging, and folk song.
His compositions include settings of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, the All-Night Vigil, and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, as well as choral concertos, a symphonic fantasy, a flute concerto, children's operas, romances, and arrangements of folk songs. He also wrote on music education, choral singing, and the history and forms of Russian church singing.