Sergei Rachmaninoff was a great Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, one of the most prominent figures in world musical culture. Born in 1873, in the Novgorod Governorate into a noble family. In 1892, he graduated with honors from the Moscow Conservatory, receiving the Great Gold Medal. Rachmaninoff's diploma work was the one-act opera "Aleko," based on Alexander Pushkin's poem "The Gypsies." The work was highly praised by Pyotr Tchaikovsky; at the composer's insistence, it was staged at the Bolshoi Theatre. Following a creative crisis triggered by the unsuccessful premiere of his First Symphony (1897), he composed his Second Piano Concerto (1901), which brought him worldwide fame. From 1904 to 1906, Rachmaninoff served as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre, where he staged his own operas "The Miserly Knight" and "Francesca da Rimini". In 1917, after the October Revolution, the composer left Russia permanently. He lived in Denmark and, from 1918, settled in the United States, where he gained renown primarily as a virtuoso concert pianist, touring the world. In emigration, he continued to compose, creating such masterpieces as the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", Symphony No. 3, and the "Symphonic Dances". The online collection of the Bakhrushin Theatre Museum features archival documents, costume designs, programs and other materials related to the composer.