Pianist Yefim Bronfman has been a fixture of concert stages, especially in the U.S., since becoming an American citizen in 1989. He is especially admired for his performances of modern Russian repertory, in which he balances pianistic fireworks with the moody introspection common to many of the works of the otherwise diverse Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
Bronfman was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, then part of the Soviet Union, on April 10, 1958. He had his first lessons from his mother, a piano teacher by trade. The family emigrated to Israel in 1973, and the teenaged Yefim beg...