Sergei Prokofiev was one of the major composers of the twentieth century, a Russian master whose music combined biting modern dissonance with soaring lyricism and a sharp, often sardonic wit. Born in what is now Ukraine, he was a prodigy who began composing as a small child and trained at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he gained a reputation as a brilliant and rebellious young firebrand.
He first made his name as a daring modernist and a dazzling pianist, shocking audiences with the percussive energy and dissonance of early works. After the Russian Revolution he left his homeland and spent years in the West, in the United States and Paris, composing operas, ballets, concertos, and symphonies and touring as a celebrated performer.
In the 1930s, drawn by homesickness and the promise of support for his art, Prokofiev made the fateful decision to return to the Soviet Union. There he produced some of his most beloved works — the ballet Romeo and Juliet, the children's tale Peter and the Wolf, the stirring film score for Alexander Nevsky, and the Fifth Symphony.
Life under Stalin proved increasingly difficult. In 1948 Prokofiev was among the composers officially denounced for "formalism," a humiliation that darkened his final years as his health declined. By a strange coincidence, he died on the very same day as Stalin himself, in March 1953, his death overshadowed by the dictator's. His music remains among the most performed of the modern era.