Prokofiev

Prokofiev



Sergei Prokofiev (April 23, 1891 - March 5, 1953) was a Russian composer. Early years Prokofiev was born in Sontsovka (now the village of Krasne in Donetsk oblast), Ukraine, as an only child. His mother was a pianist and his father a relatively wealthy agricultural engineer. Prokofiev displayed unusual musical abilities at an early age and in 1902, when he started taking private lessons in composition, he had already produced a number of pieces. As soon as he had the necessary theoretical tools he quickly started experimenting, laying the base for his own musical style. After a while, Prokofiev felt that the isolation in Sontsovka was restricting his further musical development. Although his parents were not too keen on forcing their son into a musical career at such an early age, in 1904 he moved to Saint Petersburg and applied to the Academy of Music. He passed the introductory tests and started his composition studies the same year, being several years younger than most of his classmates. He was viewed as eccentric and arrogant, and he often expressed dissatisfaction with much of the education, which he found boring. During this period he studied under, among others, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He also became friends with Boris Asafiev and Nikolai Myaskovsky. In the Saint Petersburg music scene, Sergei would gradually get a reputation as an enfant terrible, while also getting praise for his original compositions which he would perform himself on the piano. In 1909 he graduated from his class in composition, getting less than impressive marks. He continued at the academy, but now concentrated on playing the piano and conducting. His piano lessons went far from smoothly, but the composition classes made an impression on him. His teacher encouraged his musical experimentation, and his works from this period display more intensity than earlier ones. In 1910 Prokofiev's father died and Sergei's economic support ceased. Luckily, at that time he had started making a name for himself as a composer, although he frequently caused scandals with his forward-looking works. His first two piano concertos were composed around this time. In 1914 Prokofiev left the academy, this time with the highest marks, which won him a grand piano. Soon afterwards he made a trip to London where he made contact with Serge Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky. During World War I, Prokofiev returned again to the academy, now studying organ. He composed an opera based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Gambler, but the rehearsals were plagued by problems and the premiere 1917 had to be cancelled because of the February Revolution. In summer the same year, Prokofiev composed his first symphony, the Classical. This was Sergei's own name for the symphony, which was composed in a style inspired by, for example, Joseph Haydn. After a brief stay with his mother in Kislovodsk, Kaukasus, because of worries of the enemy capturing Petrograd, he returned in 1918, but he was now determined to leave Russia, at least temporarily. In the current Russian state of unrest he saw no room for his experimental music and in May he headed for the USA.

www.**prokofiev.org**/**biography**/childhood.html. This website was very helpful. I got most of my information from here. However i got my picture from a different website.