Alexander Varlamov, a composer of Moldavian ancestry, was born in Moscow in 1801 and was at first self-taught in music, before becoming a chorister of the court chapel in St Petersburg under Bortnyansky. His later career took him to The Hague as director of the choir of the Russian ambassador, with an appointment to the Russian wife of Prince William of Orange, Princess Anna Pavlovna. After his return to Russia in 1823 he became involved in the theatre, with appointment in 1832 as Kapellmeister to the imperial theatres in Moscow, a position he held in 1843. He spent his final years in St Petersburg. As a composer he produced a quantity of instrumental music and songs.