Born in
St. Petersburg on 22 February 1846 as Elizaveta/Elisabeth von Schultz, as the daughter of the prominent Estophile of Baltic German heritage
Georg Julius von Schultz. Adaïewsky began learning the piano in childhood. Amongst her teachers were
Adolf von Henselt,
Anton Rubinstein, and
Alexander Dreyschock. She studied composition with Alexander Famintsyn and
Nikolai Zaremba. Adayevskaya was a
pseudonym derived from the notes
A,
D, and A, played by the
kettledrum in
Mikhail Glinka's
opera Ruslan and Ludmila. Her earliest works include choruses written for the
Russian Imperial Chapel Choir. The more ambitious
Zarya (
Dawn, German title
Die Morgenröte der Freiheit (The Dawn of Freedom) ) followed in 1877; this four-act work was dedicated by the composer to
Tsar Alexander II, but was rejected by the
censor. Later, she embarked on several solo concert tours of Europe and settled in
Venice in 1882. In 1881, she composed her
Greek Sonata for
clarinet or
violin and
piano. In Italy, she collected national songs, amongst them songs of the people of the
Raetia region in
quintuple metre. In 1911, she moved to
Neuwied where was associated with the circle of the poet
Carmen Sylva and published many articles on folk music. Adayevskaya died in
Bonn in 1926. She was buried in the
Alter Friedhof, Bonn. ==Works==