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.
After summer festival appearances in Verbier and Salzburg and on tour with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena, Bronfman begins his 2022-2023 season begins with the opening week of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, followed by return visits to New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh, Houston, Philadelphia, New World, Pacific, Madison, New Jersey, Toronto and Montreal symphonies. In Europe, he will tour with Rotterdam Philharmonic and can be heard with Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Bamberg and the Dresden Staatskapelle, Maggio Fiorentino and Zurich Opera orchestras.
Bronfman works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Vladimir Jurowski, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap van Zweden, Franz Welser-Möst and David Zinman. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the major festivals of Europe and the United States.
Always keen to explore chamber music repertoire, he has performed with Pinchas Zukerman, Martha Argerich, Magdalena Kožená, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Emmanuel Pahud and many others. In 1991, he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking Bronfman’s first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15.
Widely praised for his solo, chamber and orchestral recordings, Bronfman has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning in 1997 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos. His extensive catalog includes works for two pianos by Rachmaninov and Brahms with Emanuel Ax, the complete Prokofiev concertos 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-nominated 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 Bavarian Radio Orchestra; a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Bronfman’s designation as a Carnegie Hall Perspectives series artist for the 2007-08 season and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concertos, as well as the Triple Concerto, together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk and the Tönhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for Arte Nova/BMG.
Now available on DVD are his performances of Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto with Franz Welser-Möst and the Vienna Philharmonic from Schoenbrunn, 2010 on Deutsche Grammophon; Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto with Andris Nelsons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from the 2011 Lucerne Festival; Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle on EuroArts and the Brahms Concertos with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra (2015).
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Bronfman moved 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 Firkusny, Leon Fleisher and Rudolf Serkin. A recipient in 2010 of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, he was further honored as the recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in piano performance from Northwestern University and in 2015 with an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.
August 2022
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSOA by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
