Sergei Nikiforovich Vasilenko was a Russian and Soviet composer and music teacher whose compositions showed a strong tendency towards mysticism. Vasilenko was born in Moscow and originally studied Law at Moscow University, but then changed direction and studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1896 to 1901 as a pupil of Sergei Taneyev and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. From 1903 to 1904 he was the conductor of a private opera house in Moscow.