Abram Lufer was a Ukrainian Soviet pianist and music teacher. He was born on 25 August 1905 in Kyiv, then part of the Russian Empire.
In 1928, Lufer graduated from the Mykola Lysenko Higher Institute of Music and Drama in Kyiv, where he studied with Georgy Beklemishev. He won the All-Ukrainian Piano Competition in Kharkiv in 1930. At the second International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1932, he shared third place with Boleslaw Kon; a drawing of lots placed Kon third and Lufer fourth.
Lufer appeared as a soloist with the Kyiv Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and as a soloist for Kyiv Radio. His repertoire centered on works by Romantic composers, including Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, and Franz Liszt, as well as music by contemporary Ukrainian composers such as Viktor Kosenko, Borys Lyatoshynsky, and Lev Revutsky.
He began teaching immediately after completing his musical education. From 1929 he headed the piano department at the Kyiv Tchaikovsky Conservatory, becoming a professor in 1935. He served as rector of the conservatory from 1934 to 1941 and again from 1944 to 1948. During his evacuation from 1941 to 1944, he was rector of the Saratov Mussorgsky Conservatory, returning to Kyiv in 1944.
In 1937, Lufer received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for outstanding services in training musical personnel. He was named Honored Art Worker of the Ukrainian SSR in 1945. Among his students were Mikhail Byalik, Tamara Goldfarb, Samuil Daich, Naum Chaikin, Ihor Shamo, and Ryszard Bakst.
Lufer died in Kyiv on 13 July 1948 and was buried at Baikove Cemetery.