Sergey Prokofiev

Introduction
Pre-Revolutionary period
Foreign period
Soviet period

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Images

Portrait of composer Sergey Prokofiev, circa 1938, wearing round glasses, a suit, and a tie, looking slightly to the side.

At a Glance

Sergey Prokofiev summary

Quizzes

Illustration of musical notes. classical music composer composition. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society, music notes

Composers & Their Music

Related Questions

How did Igor Stravinsky influence Sergey Prokofiev’s musical development?
How did Peter and the Wolf help children learn about orchestral instruments?
How did Russian folklore influence Sergey Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 2?
How did Sergey Prokofiev become established in Paris during the 1920s?
How did Sergey Prokofiev use his Hollywood visit for the film Alexander Nevsky?
How did Sergey Prokofiev win the Anton Rubinstein Prize?
How did Sergey Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 3 use music from The Flaming Angel?
How did Soviet expectations change Sergey Prokofiev’s musical style?
How did The Prodigal Son differ in style from Le Pas d’acier?
How did Vsevolod Meyerhold help revise Sergey Prokofiev’s opera The Gambler?
How did World War II affect Sergey Prokofiev’s life and composing?
How does the music portray the main characters in Sergey Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet?
How long did Sergey Prokofiev work on his opera War and Peace?
How was Sergey Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky cantata connected to Sergei Eisenstein’s film?
What is Sergey Prokofiev’s opera Semyon Kotko about?
What role did Serge Diaghilev play in Sergey Prokofiev’s career?
What was the subject of Sergey Prokofiev’s ballet Le Pas d’acier?
When and where was Sergey Prokofiev born?
When and where was The Love for Three Oranges first performed?
When did Sergey Prokofiev close his Paris apartment?
When did Sergey Prokofiev compose Romeo and Juliet?
When did Sergey Prokofiev die and what caused his death?
Where did Sergey Prokofiev study music as a young composer?
Where was Sergey Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet first performed as a complete ballet?
Which Fyodor Dostoyevsky story inspired Sergey Prokofiev’s opera The Gambler?
Which Leo Tolstoy novel did Sergey Prokofiev adapt into an opera?
Which Richard Brinsley Sheridan play inspired Sergey Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery?
Which cities did Sergey Prokofiev visit on his journey from Vladivostok to San Francisco?
Which instrument represents Peter in Peter and the Wolf?
Which instruments represent the animals in Peter and the Wolf?
Which major works did Sergey Prokofiev compose during 1917?
Which musicians collaborated with Sergey Prokofiev on the Sinfonia Concerto and Violin Sonata?
Which unfinished compositions did Sergey Prokofiev leave behind?
Which work did Serge Koussevitzky commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary?
Who was Lina Llubera in Sergey Prokofiev’s life?
Who were Sergey Prokofiev’s earliest music teachers?
Why did Sergey Prokofiev compose music for Joseph Stalin’s 60th birthday?
Why did Sergey Prokofiev leave Russia in 1918?
Why did Sergey Prokofiev return permanently to the Soviet Union?
Why did Sergey Prokofiev visit the Soviet Union in 1927?
Why did Sergey Prokofiev write Peter and the Wolf for the Moscow Children’s Theatre?
Why did Sergey Prokofiev’s early music shock some audiences?
Why did the premiere of Sergey Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite cause a scandal?
Why was Sergey Prokofiev awarded the Lenin Prize after his death?
Why was Sergey Prokofiev called the Bolshevik Pianist in New York City?
Why was Sergey Prokofiev censured by the Soviet Communist Party in 1948?
Why was Sergey Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet initially rejected by the Bolshoi Ballet?
Why was The Flaming Angel not produced during Sergey Prokofiev’s lifetime?
What is Robert Schumann famous for?
What was Robert Schumann’s family like?
How was Robert Schumann educated?
How did Robert Schumann die?
How did Franz Liszt begin his career in music?
What did Franz Liszt do while in Weimar, Germany?
What was the role of religion in Franz Liszt’s life?
How did Franz Liszt popularize the music of other composers?
What was Franz Schubert’s early life like?
What changes did Franz Schubert make to classical harmony?

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External Websites

Pacific Northwest Ballet - Sergei Prokofiev
World History Encyclopedia - Sergei Prokofiev
Prague Classical Concerts - Sergei Prokofiev
AllMusic - Sergey Prokofiev
The Kennedy Center - Sergei Prokofiev
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center - Who Was Sergei Prokofiev? A Brief Introduction
Making Music Fun! - Biography of Sergei Prokofiev
Gresham College - Russian Piano Masterpieces: Prokofiev
Deutsche Grammophon - Sergei Prokofieff

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Sergei Prokofiev - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Sergey Prokofiev

Russian composer

Also known as: Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev

Written by

Richard Taruskin

Professor of Musicology, University of California, Berkeley. Author of Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance; Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions; Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue...

Richard TaruskinAll

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Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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Last updated

Nov. 1, 2026 •History

Sergey Prokofiev (born April 23 [April 11, Old Style], 1891, Sontsovka, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) was a 20th-century Russian (and Soviet) composer who wrote in a wide range of musical genres, including symphonies, concerti, film music, operas, ballets, and program pieces. Prokofiev (Prokofjev in the transliteration system of the Russian Academy of Sciences) was born into a family of agriculturalists. Village life, with its peasant songs, left a permanent imprint...

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