 Tchaikovsky, unlike The Five, had received academic training in composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, and was serving as Professor of Music Theory at the Moscow Conservatory.Tchaikovsky advised him to study.Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that while teaching at the Conservatory he soon became "possibly its very best "pupil" [Rimsky-Korsakov's emphasis], judging by the quantity and value of the information it gave me!"