Editing Mily Balakirev (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Odoevsky-Balakirev--Glinka-(Repin.jpg|thumb|alt=Three men standing together – two men with beards, the one on the right with grey hair, flanking a third man watching them intently|Portrait of (left to right) Balakirev, [[Vladimir Odoevsky]] and [[Mikhail Glinka]] by [[Ilya Repin]]. The painting is somewhat anachronistic – Balakirev is depicted as a man approaching middle age, with a full beard; however, Glinka died in 1857, when Balakirev was only 20 years old.]]

Balakirev was born in [[Nizhny Novgorod]] into a [[Russian nobility|noble Russian]] family. His father, Alexey Konstantinovich Balakirev (1809–1869), was a [[Table of Ranks#Table of Ranks|titular councillor]] who belonged to the ancient dynasty founded by Ivan Vasilievich Balakirev, a Moscow [[boyar]] and [[voivode]] who led the Russian army against the [[Khanate of Kazan]] during the 1544 [[Russo-Kazan Wars|expedition]] (Alexey's branch traced its history to Andrei Simonovich Balakirev who took part in the 1618 [[Siege of Moscow (1618)|Siege of Moscow]] and was granted lands in Nizhny Novgorod).<ref name='zaitseva'>''Tatiana Zaitseva (2000)''. Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev. Origins. — St. Petersburg: Kanon, pp. 34—56 {{ISBN|5-88718-015-3}}</ref><ref>[https://gerbovnik.ru/arms/1278.html Balakirev coat of arms] by All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire. Part 9, 5 August 1816 (in Russian)</ref><ref>[https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/ЭСБЕ/Балакиревы The Balakirevs] from the [[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]], 1890—1907 (in Russian)</ref> The legend of a supposed [[Tatars|Tatar]] ancestor who was baptized and took part in the [[Battle of Kulikovo]] as [[Dmitry Donskoy]]'s personal [[chorąży|khorunzhyi]] that circulated among fellow composers was made up by Balakirev and does not find any proof.<ref name='zaitseva' />

Mily's mother was Elizaveta Ivanovna Balakireva (née Yasherova). The noble title was first granted to her father Ivan Vasilievich Yasherov who went a long way from a [[Table of Ranks#Table of Ranks|collegiate registrar]] to a [[State Councillor (Russia)|State Councillor]].<ref name='zaitseva' /><ref>[https://gerbovnik.ru/arms/3713.html Yasherov coat of arms] by All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire. Part 17, 14 January 1904 (in Russian)</ref> The name Mily (either from [[Russian language|Russian]] ''miliy'' — ''nice'', or from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''Milos'' — the island [[Milos|of the same name]])<ref>''[[:ru:Суперанская, Александра Васильевна|Aleksandra Superanskaya]] (2003)''. Dictionary of Russian First Names. — Moscow: Eksmo, p. 240 {{ISBN|5-699-04622-4}}</ref> was a traditional male name in her family.<ref name='zaitseva' /> She gave piano lessons to her son since the age of four, and when he turned ten she took him to [[Moscow]] during the summer holidays for a course of ten piano lessons with [[Alexandre Dubuque|Alexander Dubuque]]. She died in 1847 from [[smallpox]].<ref>''Mily Balakirev (1962)''. Memories and Letters. — Leningrad: State Music Publishing House, p. 17</ref>

Balakirev studied at the Nizhny Novgorod gymnasium. After his mother's death, he was transferred to the Nizhny Novgorod Noble Institute of Alexander II where he studied from 1849 to 1853. Balakirev's musical talents did not remain unnoticed, as he soon found a patron in [[Alexander Ulybyshev]] (Oulibicheff). Ulybyshev was considered the leading musical figure and patron in Nizhny Novgorod; he owned a vast musical library and was the author of a biography of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] and other books on Mozart and [[Ludwig van Beethoven]].<ref name="cang2510"/><ref name="abng247">Abraham, ''New Grove (1980)'', 2:47.</ref>

Balakirev's musical education was placed in the hands of the pianist Karl Eisrach, who also arranged the regular musical evenings at the Ulybyshev estate. Through Eisrach, Balakirev was given opportunities to read, play and listen to music and was exposed to the music of [[Frédéric Chopin]] and [[Mikhail Glinka]]. Eisrach and Ulybyshev also allowed Balakirev to rehearse the count's private orchestra in rehearsals of orchestral and choral works. Eventually, Balakirev, still aged only 14, led a performance of Mozart's ''[[Requiem (Mozart)|Requiem]]''. At age 15, he was allowed to lead rehearsals of Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 1 (Beethoven)|First]] and [[Symphony No. 8 (Beethoven)|Eighth Symphonies]]. His earliest surviving compositions date from the same year—the first movement of a [[septet]] for [[flute]], [[clarinet]], piano and [[String instrument|strings]] and a ''Grande Fantasie on Russian Folksongs'' for piano and orchestra.<ref name="cang2510"/><ref name="abng247"/> The first movement survives of an octet for piano, flute, oboe, horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass and dates from 1855.

Balakirev left the Alexandrovsky Institute in 1853 and entered the [[University of Kazan]] as a mathematics student, along with his friend  [[Pyotr Boborykin]], who later became a novelist. He was soon noted in local society as a pianist and was able to supplement his limited finances by taking pupils. His holidays were spent either at Nizhny Novgorod or on the Ulybyshev country estate at Lukino, where he played numerous Beethoven sonatas to help his patron with his book on the composer. Works from this period include a piano fantasy based on themes from Glinka's [[opera]] ''[[A Life for the Tsar]]'', an attempt at a string quartet, three songs which would eventually be published in 1908 and the opening movement (the only one completed) of his [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Balakirev)|First Piano Concerto]].<ref>Abraham, ''New Grove (1980)'', 2:47–8.</ref>

After Balakirev completed his courses in the late autumn of 1855, Ulybyshev took him to [[Saint Petersburg]], where he met Glinka. While Glinka considered Balakirev's compositional technique defective (there were as yet no music textbooks in Russian and Balakirev's German was barely adequate), he thought highly of his talent, encouraging him to take up music as a career.<ref name="abraham248"/> Their acquaintance was marked by discussions, by Glinka passing several Spanish musical themes to Balakirev, and with Glinka entrusting the young man with the musical education of his four-year-old niece. Balakirev made his debut in a university concert in February 1856, playing the completed movement from his First Piano Concerto. This was followed a month later with a concert of his piano and chamber compositions. In 1858, he played the solo part in Beethoven's [[Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)|''Emperor'' Concerto]] before the [[Alexander II of Russia|Tsar]]. In 1859, he had 12 songs published.<ref name="cang2510">Campbell, ''New Grove (2001)'', 2:510.</ref> Nevertheless, he was still in extreme poverty, supporting himself mainly by giving piano lessons (sometimes nine a day) and by playing at ''soirées'' given by the aristocracy.<ref name="abraham248">Abraham, ''New Grove (1980)'', 2:48.</ref>