Carnegie Hall to Present Yefim Bronfman in Three Concerts This Season

Acclaimed pianist Yefim Bronfman returns to Carnegie Hall this season to perform Prokofiev's complete piano sonatas. The nine sonatas will be divided over three concerts with numbers 1-4 presented during the first performance on Friday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall. Spanning the composer's early years, the first four sonatas reflect Prokofiev's coming of age as he began to cultivate and define his own musical language. For the second concert, on Wednesday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, violinist Guy Braunstein joins Mr. Bronfman for a performance of Prokofiev's Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, two pieces of very contrasting character. Mr. Bronfman completes the program with Piano Sonatas Nos. 5 and 9. Mr. Bronfman returns for his final all-Prokofiev concert of the season on Saturday, May 7 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. He concludes the cycle with sonatas 6-8, often referred to as the "War Sonatas" because of their reflection of the composer's reaction to World War II.

About the Artists
Internationally recognized as one of today's most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors, and recital series. His commanding technique, power, and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike.

Mr. Bronfman has also given numerous solo recitals in the leading halls of North America, Europe, and the Far East, including acclaimed debuts at Carnegie Hall in 1989 and Avery Fisher Hall in 1993. In 1991, he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking Mr. Bronfman's first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15. That same year, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists. In 2010, he was honored as the recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University.

Widely praised for his solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings, Mr. Bronfman was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen's piano concerto with Salonen conducting, and in 1997, he won a Grammy Award, again with Salonen, for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concerti with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His prolific catalog of recordings includes works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff and Brahms with Emanuel Ax, the complete Prokofiev concerti with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players, and the soundtrack to Disney's Fantasia 2000. His most recent CD releases are the 2014 Grammy Award-nominated recording of Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2, commissioned for him and performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert on the Da Capo label; Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bayerischer Rundfunk; a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Mr. Bronfman's designation as a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist for the 2007-2008 season; and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concerti as well as the Triple Concerto with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label.

Born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, where he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States, he studied at The Juilliard School, Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, under Rudolf Firkušný, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. He is a 2015 recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music. Yefim Bronfman became an American citizen in July 1989.

Violinist Guy Braunstein was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and studied the violin under the guidance of Chaim Taub and later in New York with Glenn Dicterow and Pinchas Zukerman.

He started performing as an international soloist and a chamber musician at a young age and has since played with the Israel Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zürich, Bamberg Symphony, Copenhagen Radio and Frankfurt Radio Orchestras, as well as the Filarmonica della Scala, Berliner Philharmoniker, and many others.

His success brought him quickly to the world's most important venues and he has collaborated with musicians such as Isaac Stern, András Schiff, Zubin Mehta, Maurizio Pollini, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yefim Bronfman, Daniel Barenboim, Lioba Braun, Sir Simon Rattle, Mitsuko Uchida, Andrey Boreyko, Lang Lang, Jonathan Nott, Emanuel Ax, Gary Bertini, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Semyon Bychkov, and Angelika Kirschlager.

Between 2003 and 2007, Mr. Braunstein held the position of Professor of Music in the University of the Arts (Universität der Künste) in Berlin and since 2006 has been the Music Director of the Rolandseck festival in Germany where he has welcomed international stars such as Emmanuel Pahud, Hélène Grimaud, Amihai Grosz, and François Leleux.

Mr. Braunstein was the youngest person to be appointed concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2000, a position which heralded his debut as an orchestral member. He retired from this position at the end of the 2012-2013 season.

Mr. Braunstein plays a rare violin made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1679.

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!