 His general education was in the First Cadet Corps at St Petersburg, and he served in the Artillery from 1877 to 1879.His music studies were in Berlin, under Theodor Kullak and Natanael Betcher at the Berlin Conservatory, and under Woldemar Bargiel at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst.He returned to Russia in 1885, graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatory and taught at the Moscow Philharmonic Society School of Music and Drama.