Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union, regarded as one of the major composers of the twentieth century. Across a body of work that includes seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets and five piano concertos, he created some of the most widely heard pieces in the orchestral repertoire, among them the ballet Romeo and Juliet, the suite Lieutenant Kije, and the narrated symphonic tale Peter and the Wolf. He left Russia after the 1917 revolution to live and perform abroad, then returned to the Soviet Union in the 1930s, where he continued composing prolifically even as Soviet cultural policy grew more restrictive.