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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (often called Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky) (May 7, 1840 [O.S. April 25] – November 6, 1893 [O.S. October 25]) was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. Tchaikovsky wrote music across a range of genres, including symphony, opera, ballet, instrumental, chamber and song. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, as well as the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, his last three numbered symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

Born into a middle-class family, Tchaikovsky was educated towards a career as a civil servant, despite the musical precocity he had demonstrated. Against the wishes of his family, he chose to pursue a musical career, and, in 1862, he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1865. The formal, Western-oriented training he received set him apart from the contemporary nationalistic movement embodied by the influential group of young Russian composers known as The Five, with whom Tchaikovsky sustained a mixed professional relationship throughout his career.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky