The grandson of General A. Seliverstov and a captured Turkish woman,[1][2] he was also a descendant of the Polish szlachta (gentry or aristocracy).

One of them The Black Shawl or Moldavian Song (1823) a setting of Alexander Pushkin's poem, became immensely popular in the aristocrats' salons.

In 1825 he was appointed as an 'inspector of music' in Moscow, in charge of the imperial theatres including the Maly and Bolshoi, controlling all the repertoire (from 1830) and chairing the board of directors (from 1848 until 1860).

It has been claimed that the music for Askold's Grave was polished up by Gioachino Rossini, based on Verstovsky's ideas, for a fee that covered a gambling debt.

Glinka avoided mentioning him in his memoirs; Modest Mussorgsky nicknamed him Gemoroy (Haemorrhoid) by association with the title of his opera Gromoboy.