Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was supposed to devote his life solely to Russian military service, but fortunately for us, he managed to build a remarkable musical career alongside. He was one of the composers who formed the Mighty Handful or The Five (the others were Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, César Cui and Modest Mussorgsky), a group of 19th-century artists who sought to define a new national Russian school of composition. His skill as an orchestrator is legendary, and he influenced generations of composers who studied with him: Alexander Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky.