Federal state budgetary institution of culture “Russian National Museum of Music” (Museum of Music), a museum association that includes branches throughout Moscow. The main building is located on Fadeeva Street, 4.
In early 1995, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the Museum was included in the State Register of Especially Valuable Objects of Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of the Russian Federation.
The foundations of the Museum were laid by the Moscow Conservatory, where manuscripts, musical notes, scores, personal belongings of musicians, their musical instruments, and photographs from musical performances gradually accumulated over many years. The exposition of the Museum at the Moscow Conservatory opened in 1912, and the Museum was named after Nikolai Rubinstein, a Russian musician, founder of the Moscow Conservatory and its first director.
The collection of musical instruments from the 13th century to the present day has about 3,000 items. It presents musical instruments of the peoples of Russia and neighboring countries, as well as Western Europe, Africa, Asia, America, and Australia.
As of 2022, the Museum has the world’s largest fund for musical culture, numbering about one million items, covering all the components of the concept of “musical culture”: these are author’s manuscripts and archives of musicians of different times and autographs, and photographs of musical figures – both portraits, as well as scenes from performances – and musical instruments of various eras, and audio and video recordings of musical works of all types and genres, from classical to folk and modern rhythmic – in the section of photographic documents there are about 89 thousand items of storage.
The first Russian gramophone records (about 60,000 storage units) released by the Gramophone, Zonofon, Pate, and Metropol companies, as well as publications of the Soviet period (Melodiya company) and leading foreign companies, are also stored here.
Many composers donated manuscripts of their works to the Museum, among them Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Glazunov, Alexander Grechaninov, Dmitry Shostakovich and others.
In 2010, the State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments was added to the exhibits of the Museum, among the original instruments by Amati, Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri.
Working hours: Tue, Wed 11:00–19:00; Thu, Fri 12:00–21:00; Sat 11:00–20:00; Sun 11:00–18:00.
Address: Fadeeva Street, 4, Moscow.
Metro: Mayakovskaya, Novoslobodskaya, Mendeleevskaya.
