Karl Zike
Karl Zike (January 8 [20], 1850–June 3, 1890) was a Russian composer, conductor, and music teacher. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1870, studying piano with Alexander Villuan, composition with Nikolai Zaremba, and also taking organ classes with Heinrich Shtil. In 1878, he completed further composition studies with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Zike gave private lessons, including to Arthur Friedheim. He conducted opera performances at the Musical-Dramatic Circle of Amateurs, where he presented the first St. Petersburg performances of Solovyov’s opera The Smith Vakula in 1880 and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in 1883.
In 1881–82, he was professor of music theory at the Moscow Conservatory; he then taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory until his death. His subjects included harmony, counterpoint, and chorus. Anton Arensky and Nikolai Tcherepnin were among his students. In 1889, at the request of A. G. Rubinstein, he inspected provincial branches of the Russian Musical Society. His works included an overture to Friedrich Schiller’s The Bride of Messina, the musical picture The Black Sea, the chorus Peri, and several piano pieces.