P. I. Tchaikovsky House-Museum

About museum

The exhibition is located in a mansion (the Manager's House) built in 1832. From 1849 to 1852 the manager of the Alapaevsk mining district was Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, the father of the great composer, and Pyotr Ilyich spent part of his childhood in Alapaevsk. The museum's exhibition covers the themes "The Life of the Tchaikovskys in Alapaevsk" and "Musical Instruments of the Peoples of the World." The museum halls are the rooms of the manager's house, arranged as they were during the Tchaikovskys' time. The original artistic design (using modern equipment, phonograms, an animated film, a slide film) allows visitors to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the Tchaikovsky house. The Alapaevsk P. I. Tchaikovsky House-Museum is the only musical museum in the Middle Urals. The collection of musical instruments numbers about 1,000 exhibits. The halls also display numerous miniature models of instruments made by the museum's founder V. B. Gorodilina. Many of the instruments are playable: a Manborg harmonium, a Gebauhr grand piano from Königsberg, a music box by the Swiss firm Mermod, a symphonion, a kozobas, concert cimbaloms, a mechanical piano attachment — a pianola by the American firm Metrostyle, and a musical carafe. A particular pride of the museum is three instruments by the St. Petersburg firm Wirht: two grand pianos and a table-shaped piano. The museum houses an early 19th-century mechanical organ that the young Pyotr Tchaikovsky heard in Alapaevsk. Concert programs by Russian and foreign musicians and art exhibitions are held on the museum mezzanine.