[2] His accomplishments included: Vasily Andreyev was born in Bezhetsk, Tver Governorate, Russian Empire to the family of an honorary citizen of Bezhetsk and merchant of the first guild, Vasily Andeyevich Andreyev and his wife, the noblewoman Sophia Mikhaylovna Andreyeva.

[1] Initially, Andreyev was studying to play the violin and working as a musician in the various salons catering to European tourists to the Russian capital.

[4] The popularity of Andreyev's group grew significantly after their performance in Paris, France at the world Exhibition, where they became celebrities.

[1] More recently, Iurii Boiko pointed out in 1984 that the orchestra's technique of playing a melody in the form of a sustained tremolo on one string – much copied and widely thought of as "Russian" in style (witness Maurice Jarre's film score for David Lean's Doctor Zhivago) – is in fact not a Russian manner of playing at all; rather, it was a technique borrowed by Andreyev from the Neapolitan mandolin orchestra.

[5] This new form of folk music gained international popularity after Andreyev's many concert tours in Great Britain between 1900 and 1910.