Dimitri Arakishvili

He was also known by his Russified name Dimitry Ignatyevich Arakchiev (Russian: Димитрий Игнатьевич Аракчиев).

Born in Vladikavkaz, Terek Oblast, Russian Empire (now North Ossetia, Russia), he graduated, in 1901, from the School of Music and Drama operated by Moscow Philharmonic Society where he was tutored by Alexander Gretchaninov and Willem Kes.

He helped found the Moscow People's Conservatory and offered free musical classes in Arbat Square in 1906.

One of his major interests was Georgian folk music and he traveled throughout Georgia collecting traditional music and over 500 folk songs from 1901 to 1908.

When Georgia established an independent republic in 1918, Arakishvili moved to Tbilisi and founded a conservatory which was merged with the Tbilisi State Conservatoire in 1923.