Yefim Bronfman

Yefim Bronfman was born in Tashkent, studied in Tel Aviv and continued his education in the USA, including at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. His international career began in 1978 with his New York Philharmonic debut under Zubin Mehta. Since then Bronfman has given recitals in all the leading concert halls in Europe, the USA and the Far East, as well as at international festivals in Aspen, Tanglewood, Bad Kissingen, Lucerne, Verbier and Salzburg.  

He 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, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap van Zweden, Franz Welser-Möst and David Zinman.  

As 2021/22 artist in residence with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, his season began on tour with the orchestra in Europe and concluded in June with the world premiere of a concerto commissioned for him from Elena Firsova. Other recent highlights include appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic. He has also recently toured with the Munich Philharmonic to Vienna and Frankfurt, and performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Luxembourg and Paris. In addition, he has recently been a guest at the George Enescu International Festival in Bucharest, and been invited back to perform with the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and also with the symphony orchestras of Boston, Houston, St Louis, San Francisco, Montreal, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Oregon and Cincinnati.  

Always keen to explore chamber music repertoire, his partners have included 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 his first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15.    

His prolific catalogue of recordings includes works by Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Prokofiev, Mozart and Schubert. He won a Grammy Award in 1997 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos. His most recent CD releases are the Grammy nominated recording of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 commissioned for him and performed with the New York Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a recital disc, Perspectives, and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concertos as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra under David Zinman. 

A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honours given to American instrumentalists, in 2010 Yefim Bronfman was further honoured 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.