September 17, 2010 | Arts

Lane Prize Winner Yefim Bronfman to Give Master Class

Oct. 4 and 5 master classes by award-winning pianist are free and open to the public

By Judy Moore

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music will welcome world-renowned artist Yefim Bronfman, 2010 winner of school’s $50,000 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance, to the University. Bronfman’s Oct. 4 and 5 visit is the first of three residencies on the Evanston campus.

Bronfman will present master classes featuring pre-selected Bienen School piano students from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4, and from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5. Both admission-free events are open to the public and will be held at Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place.

Winner of a 1997 Grammy Award and the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, Bronfman appears regularly with the world’s great orchestras. He has been both a “Perspectives” artist at Carnegie Hall in New York and an “Artiste Etoile” at the Lucerne Festival. A devoted chamber musician, he has collaborated with cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell, violinist Joshua Bell and the Emerson String Quartet.

Bronfman also has won widespread praise for his solo, chamber and orchestral recordings. His most recent releases are Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with conductor Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, a recital disc; “Perspectives,” created when he was ‘Perspectives’ artist at Carnegie Hall; and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concerti, as well as the Triple Concerto for the Arte Nova/BMG label. For more information on the artist, visit yefimbronfman.com.

In 2005, Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music established the biennial Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance to honor pianists who have achieved the highest levels of national and international recognition. Winners receive a $50,000 cash award and spend two to three non-consecutive weeks in residence at the School of Music, interacting with students and faculty. Previous award recipients have been Richard Goode (2006) and Stephen Hough (2008).

The prize is made possible by a generous gift from Jean Gimbel Lane and the late Honorable Laurence W. Lane Jr. Jean Gimbel Lane is a 1952 graduate of Northwestern University who majored in art history.