Verstovsky studied engineering at the Scientific Institute of Saint Petersburg and also took piano lessons from Daniel Steibelt and John Field and violin lessons from Louis Wilhelm Maurer. Since 1825, he was a music inspector at the Imperial Theatre in Moscow. From 1848 to 1860, he headed the theater office in Moscow.
In 1825, the Bolshoi Theatre was opened with his and Aljabjews compostion, The Triumph of the Muses. His work "Akold's Grave" was the first Russian opera performed in the United States. Besides more than twenty vaudevilles, he also composed operas and incidental music, cantatas, choral works, songs and church music.
