Chronology of Thomas de Hartmann's life and major musical works

Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann was born on 21 September 1885, in the Ukraine, into a family that belonged to the highest Russian aristocracy. He started to play the piano at the age of four. After the death of his father, when he was nine years old, he was sent to a military school in St. Petersburg. Because of his obvious talents, he was given the opportunity to study music in addition to his military education.
He studied harmony with Arenskii and Taneiev -who also taught Rachmaninov and Scriabin- and piano technique with Esipova-Leschetizky, Prokoviev's teacher. He received his diploma from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1903, at the age of eighteen. That same year, his music for the tragedy Caligula by Dumas the Elder was performed at the Imperial Theatre. In 1906, his ballet The Scarlet Flower was performed in the presence of the Tsar with Fokine, Nijinsky and Pavlova in the cast. Two years later, after an intervention by the Tsar himself, de Hartmann was allowed to study conducting in Munich with Felix Mottl, a pupil of Wagner.
He married Olga Arkadievna de Shumacher, who would later function as Gurdjieff's secretary, translator and household manager. The de Hartmanns stayed in Munich from 1908 to 1912 and later returned for a short period in 1914. There, they established contact with the avant-garde, and especially with Vassily Kandinsky, who remained a life-long friend.