Aleksandr Dmitrievich Kastalsky was a Russian composer, choral conductor, researcher of folk music and teacher. In 1876-1881 he studied music theory with Pyotr Il’ich Tchaikovsky, Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev and Nikolay Albertovich Hubert at the Moscow Conservatory.
In 1887 he was invited to teach various musical disciplines at the Synod College for Church Singing in Moscow. He had many students, including Nikolay Semyonovich Golovanov, Sergey Alekseyevich Zharov, Mikhail Georg’yevich Klimov, Aleksandr Grigor’yevich Chesnokov and Konstantin Nikolayevich Shvedov. In 1893 he completed studies at the Moscow Conservatory as a nonresident student.
From 1901 he was the chief conductor of the Synod Chorus, and in 1910 he became the director of the Synod College. In 1918-1923 he was the director of the Moscow People’s Choral Academy, created on the foundation of the Synod College. From 1923 he was a professor of the Moscow Conservatory, the head of the Choral Department and the head of the Department of Folk Music. Among his students was Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Davidenko.
He wrote an opera, sacred music, cantatas, piano works, etc.
