Vasily Orlov
Vasily Orlov was a Russian choral conductor and teacher, and one of the initiators and organizers of the All-Russian Society of Choral Figures. He was born on 25 January (6 February) 1857 in the village of Nikolskoye, Moscow Governorate. His father, Sergei Afinogenovich Orlov, was a church sexton. As a child, Vasily sang at church services with his father and three brothers.
At eight, Orlov entered the Zaikonospassky Theological School in Moscow, but left after a year because his family could not afford his education. He stayed in the city and supported himself by singing in private church choirs, including those led by S. G. Kotov and V. N. Postnikov. In 1869, Synodal Choir regent V. N. Zverev heard him sing and helped him enter the choir and its school on a state scholarship. Orlov studied church singing with V. I. Zverev, violin with Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra musician U. Pol, and music theory with Moscow Conservatory professor N. D. Kashkin.
After graduating from the Synodal School in 1874, Orlov was refused admission to the Moscow and Bethany theological seminaries because he was over the age limit. With the support of the Synodal authorities, he entered the Moscow Conservatory that winter to study bassoon, a course that exempted students from tuition. From 1876 to 1878 he studied harmony with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He graduated in 1880 with the title of Free Artist and married E. N. Lakier that year.
For the next 27 years, Orlov worked as a teacher, educator, and conductor. He taught singing at the Elizabethan School from 1880 to 1897, at the School of the Order of Saint Catherine from 1884 to 1893, and at the Usachev-Chernyaev School from 1886 to 1899. He also taught at the Fifth Men's Gymnasium in 1882–1884 and 1893–1899. From 1882 to 1886, he directed the Russian Choral Society's church choir chapel and led the Moscow University choir. He became regent of the Synodal Choir in 1886 and director of the Synodal School in 1901; he also conducted concerts by Moscow's combined church choir. Orlov died in Moscow on 10 (23) November 1907.