Mily Alexanyevich Balakirev (born Nizhny-Novgorod 2 January 1837; died St Petersburg 29 May 1910) was a Russian composer. His music sounds very Russian, and he was a very important influence on other Russian composers such as Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin and César Cui. These five composers were known as the “Mighty Handful”. Balakirev mainly wrote music for orchestra, choir and piano and solo songs.