Sergei Prokofiev (Russian: Сергей Сергеевич Прокофьев, 1891 -1953) was a major Russian composer of the 20th century. Prokofiev was born in Sontsovka (now Krasne, Krasnoarmiisk Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine), a remote rural estate in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire. Prokofiev took piano, theory, and composition lessons from Reinhold Glière, then enrolled at the St. Petersburg Conservatory when he was thirteen. He took theory with Anatoly Lyadov, orchestration with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and became lifelong friends with Nikolai Myaskovsky. After graduating, he began performing in St.