Porfiry Molchanov was a Ukrainian and Soviet composer and teacher. He was born on 24 February 1863 in Kharkiv and died on 13 April 1945 in Odesa.
In 1887, Molchanov graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadov. From 1888, he served as a senior instructor in music-theory subjects at the music classes in Odesa, later reorganized as a music college.
At the end of 1892, he sent an orchestral work to Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky performed it at a Russian Musical Society concert in Odesa on 4 February 1893.
From 1926, Molchanov was professor of composition at the L. Beethoven Odesa Music and Drama Institute, which became the Odesa Conservatory in 1934. His long musical activity formed a foundation of Odesa's school of music theory. He taught composition, counterpoint, fugue, and polyphony, basing his courses on programs comparable to conservatory instruction. He later headed the Odesa Conservatory's Department of Music Theory and Composition, serving until 1944.
Molchanov's works include two symphonies, a scherzo for symphony orchestra, a cantata, and a string sextet. In 1891, he arranged and edited the piano-vocal score of Mykola Arkas's opera Katerina.