Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovitch (9 March 1839. Karevo; 16 March 1881, St. Petersburg), composer, took his first piano lessons from his mother, but he went to St. Petersburg in 1849 to enter a military school, not the Conservatory. He met a circle of capable musicians in St. Petersburg, however, and he bagan to study composition under the direction of Mily Balakireff , who became the leader of the famous “Five” group that included César Antonovich Cui , Mussorgsky, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov…