Nikolai Hubert
Nikolai Hubert was a Russian music critic and teacher. He was born in St. Petersburg on March 7 (19), 1840, and died in Moscow on September 26 (October 8), 1888.
He first studied with his father, then attended the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied theory of composition with Nikolai Zaremba and instrumentation with Anton Rubinstein. During his conservatory years, he became close to Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who remained his friend for many years.
After graduating in 1869, Hubert became director of the Kyiv branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society. In 1870, Nikolai Rubinstein invited him to teach music theory at the Moscow Conservatory. Hubert became the conservatory’s director after Rubinstein’s death in 1881, but resigned in 1883 following a conflict with Max Erdmannsdörfer, who taught conducting there. Hubert returned to the conservatory in 1885 and taught there until his death.
Hubert continued the course of development established by Rubinstein and helped improve the conservatory’s reputation. His articles, which appeared regularly in the newspaper Moscow Gazette, were widely read. He also contributed to the journal Modern Chronicle.