Soka Performing Arts Center Presents Acclaimed Pianist Yefim Bronfman In An All-Beethoven Program

(Aliso Viejo, CA, January 7, 2020) – Soka Performing Arts Center presents internationally-acclaimed pianist Yefim Bronfman in a solo piano recital on Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 3pm. “Listening to Bronfman play… is like being in a crowded room when suddenly a profound conversationalist begins to speak and everyone just steps back to listen with rapt attention.” (Chicago Sun Times). What more needs to be said about this titan of the piano whose playing exhibits all the elements - humor, playfulness, roguishness, nobility, and passion -  of Beethoven’s sonatas. The all-Beethoven program includes: Piano Sonata No.5 in C minor, Op. 10, No.1; Piano Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2; Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10, No. 3; Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57, Appassionata

Tickets are on sale now and range from $45-$75. They are available for purchase online, at the Box Office at 1 University Drive in Aliso Viejo, or by calling 949. 490.4278.

About Yefim Bronfman
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.

As guest soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst, Mr. Bronfman participated in the opening concerts of Carnegie Hall’s 2019-2020 season followed immediately by the inauguration of a season-long Artist-in –Residence project with the Vienna Symphony in both the Musikverein and Konzerthaus. During the fall he also participated in farewell concerts for Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic, Japan with the Vienna Philharmonic and Andrés Orozco-Estrada as well as season opening events in Houston, Seattle and Rhode Island. The second half of the season will see return visits to orchestras in Hamburg, Munich, New York, Montreal, Philadelphia, Cleveland, San Diego, Madison, Portland, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Pittsburgh and Boston with whom he will also tour in Korea, Hong Kong and China. In recital he can be heard celebrating Beethoven’s 250th in Berlin, Toronto, Denver, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Kalamazoo and Carnegie Hall.

Mr. 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, Mariss Jansons, 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 US. 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 Mr. Bronfman’s first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15.

Widely praised for his solo, chamber and orchestral recordings, Mr. 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 Bartok Piano Concerti. 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 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 2007-08 season; and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concerti as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label.

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; Rachmaninoff’s third concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle on the EuroArts label and both Brahms Concerti with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra (2015).

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 Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, in 2010 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.

About Soka Performing Arts Center
Now is in its ninth season of presenting the best of live performances on its extraordinary stage, Soka Performing Arts Center, located on the campus of Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California, is under the new leadership of General Manager Renee Bodie. The 1,000-seat concert hall features world-class acoustics designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, acoustic designer of noted performance venues like Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

Designed to truly reflect the university’s commitment to sustainability, the concert hall and adjacent Maathai Hall (featuring a black box theatre and dance studio) have been built to Gold LEED standards and feature vegetated green roofs. Photo voltaic cells on the Soka Performing Arts Center roof generate approximately 15% of the facility’s electrical needs.   

Soka University of America is a private, non-profit, four-year liberal arts college and graduate program. The university is open to top students of all nationalities and beliefs and was founded upon the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights, and the sanctity of life. For more information, please visit soka.edu.

Yefim Bronfman
Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 3pm

Program:

BEETHOVEN
Piano Sonata No.5 in C minor, Op. 10, No.1
Piano Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10, No. 3
Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57, Appassionata

Event URL:                  http://bit.ly/36xNWN5  
Regular Tickets:          $45/$55/$65/$75      
Discount Tickets:        Senior, Student and Active Military: $40.50/$49.50/$58.50/$67.50

Parking:                      FREE

In Person:                   1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
Online:                        performingarts.soka.edu
Phone:                        949.480.4ART (4278)

 

All information is accurate at the time of printing but is subject to change.

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MEDIA CONTACT
Jennifer Urbano
949.480.4014
jurbano@soka.edu