Russian National Museum of Music, Musical heritage museum in Tverskoy District, Moscow, Russia

The Russian National Museum of Music occupies a long, flat-roofed grey stone building on ulitsa Fadeyeva, its upper facade carrying three tall banks of windows with dark mullions and a zigzagging white graphic on the central bank. At street level a colonnade of round pale columns frames dark glazed entrances. The museum holds over a million items, including a Stradivari and a Guarneri violin and an 1868 Ladegast organ.

The museum was founded in 1912 at Moscow Conservatory as a collection of musical instruments and documents from notable Russian musicians. It evolved over decades into a comprehensive consortium preserving the history of Russian musical life.

The museum preserves archives of Russian compositions, displaying works by classical composers alongside traditional folk music that shaped generations. Visitors experience how these musical traditions remain part of the cultural conversation today.

The main building stands at ulitsa Fadeeva 4, a short walk from Mayakovskaya metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya line. The museum is a consortium: five further exhibition buildings across Moscow belong to it, so check which site you want before setting out. The concert hall in the main building holds a Schuke organ from Potsdam, installed when the building opened in 1980.

The collection began with instruments acquired in the 1880s from August Eichhorn, who had served as bandmaster of Russian military orchestras in Tashkent between 1870 and 1883. Among the holdings are a Stradivari and a Guarneri violin and an 1868 organ by Friedrich Ladegast. The museum has occupied its purpose-built Fadeyev Street building, with a concert hall, since 1980.