A distinguished Russian composer and pedagogue, Gergy Catoire received the highest honors as a mathematician and joined his father's successful commercial venture. Catoire started private lessons in piano and harmony, that soon resulted in the creation of a piano sonata, a few piano pieces and transcriptions. Catoire’s transcription of Tchaikovsky's Introduction and Fugue from the First Orchestral Suite received a very high acclaim from the critics and audiences, and, even more importantly, from Tchaikovsky himself. It was Tchaikovsky who recommended that the publisher Jurgenson included Catoire’s composition in his books. In 1919 Catoire was appointed professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory.