Nadezhda Nikolayevna Rimskaya-Korsakova (1848-1919) was a pianist, composer, arranger, author, and the wife of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Born into a musical family, she began playing the piano at age 9, and went on to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Though she gave up most of her compositional work after her 1872 marriage to Rimsky-Korsakov, instead dedidicating her energies towards supporting his musical career and caring for their large family, she continued to arrange reduced versions of orchestral scores, a skill she had learned under the tutelage of Alexander Dargomyzhsky. She arranged a number of vocal scores and piano, 4 hands transcriptions of works by Russian composers such as Borodin, Glazunov, Dargomyzhsky, and even her husband.
A number of her arrangements are being digitized here at Sibley, as we progress through the piano, 4 hands materials, including a version of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.
