Alexander Tchaikovsky is a People's Artist of Russia, and from 2005 to 2008 he was the Rector of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He graduated from the Central Music School at the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory and studied piano under Professor Heinrich Neuhaus there. In 1972, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a double degree in piano under Professor Lev Naumov and in composition under Professor Tikhon Khrennikov. The composer went on to do postgraduate studies as a composer, also under Tikhon Khrennikov's guidance.

Alexander Tchaikovsky is one of the most prominent contemporary composers in Russia. Musical theatre plays the leading role in his career — he has composed fourteen operas, three ballets, musicals and operetta. He has also written seven  symphonies, a series of instrumental concerts for piano, viola, cello, bassoon, four saxophones and other instruments accompanied by an orchestra, and, in addition, many choral, vocal and chamber-instrumental works. An Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR (1988), the composer was awarded the Order of Friendship for services in development of the national culture, art and mass media and for his many years of fruitful music activity (2016). In 2017, he also won the Government of Moscow Award for Culture for his opera The Legend of the City of Yelets, the Virgin Mary and Tamerlan.

Alexander Tchaikovsky is a Professor at the Moscow Conservatory, where he is the Head of the Composition Department. Among others, he has taught composers Pavel Singer, Andrey Kasparov, Adrian Korchinsky, Alexander Pravednikov, Dmitry Ryabtsev, Alexei Syumak, Olga Alyushina, Kuzma Bodrov and Tikhon Khrennikov Jr.

Alexander Tchaikovsky takes great interest in working with young composers and holds many masterclasses, both in Russia and abroad. He is the Artistic director and inspiration behind the Youth Academies of Russia Music Festival; co-head of the jury at the All-Russian Composition Competition of Young Composers for Symphonic Orchestra, which is part of the Another Space International Festival of Contemporary Music; the Head of the jury at the International Myaskovsky Young Composers' Competition; and also the Head of the jury at the International Young Composers' Competition, which is part of the Yuri Bashmet Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi. The composer is the Artistic director of the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic and the Honorary Chairman of the Union of Composers of Russia.