Renana Gutman

Praised by The New York Times for her “passionate and insightful” playing, Renana Gutman has performed across four continents as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and collaborative artist. She played at venues like The Louvre Museum, (France), Carnegie Recital Hall, Merkin Hall (New York), St. Petersburg’s Philharmonia (Russia), Stresa Music Festival (Italy), Ravinia Rising Stars (Chicago), Jordan Hall (Boston), Herbst Theatre (St. Francisco), Menuhin Hall (UK), UNISA (South Africa), Marlboro (VT), and Washington National Gallery. Her performances are heard frequently on WQXR Young Artists Showcase, NY, WFMT Dame Myra Hess, Chicago, and MPR Performances Today, MN.

A top prize winner at Los Angeles Liszt competition, International Keyboard Festival in New York, and Tel-Hai Internationl Master Classes, she has performed with orchestras including Jerusalem Symphony, Haifa Symphony, Belgian “I Fiamminghi”, Mannes College Orchestra.

Renana was one of four young pianists selected by the renowned Leon Fleisher to participate in his workshop on Beethoven piano sonatas hosted by Carnegie Hall, where she presented performances of “Hammerklavier” and “Appassionata” to critical acclaim. Her recording of Chopin etudes op.25 will be released in 2016.

Renana spent summers at the Marlboro and Ravinia Music Festivals where she collaborated with Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, members of the Guarneri quartet and clarinetist Anthony McGill. She toured with “Musicians from Marlboro” in series like People’s Symphony Concerts (NY), Gardener Museum (Boston) and Freer Gallery (Washington).

High in demand as a chamber musician, Renana serves as the staff collaborative pianist of Steans Institute at Ravinia Festival, where she performs chamber music and lieder extensively.  Her regular duo partners include violinists Alexi Kenney, InMo Yang, Yoojin Jang and Tessa Lark. Recently, she premiered a commissioned piece by composer Paul Schoenfield alongside violinist Miriam Fried. She has been touring with “Echoes of Hope” ensemble, which is dedicated to performing obscure pieces by Jewish composers who perished in the Holocaust.

As a former member of the piano trio “Terzetto”, Renana won first Prize at the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition in Ohio, performed Beethoven Triple Concerto with Lansing Symphony. The trio was featured at “Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival”, the Banff Center, Canada, Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival, North Carolina and Saugatuck Music Festival, Michigan.

From 2008-2010 Renana had been on the piano faculty of the Yehudi Menuhin Music School in the UK, as an assistant of prof. Marcel Baudet. She currently teaches at 92nd Street Y, and Bard College Preparatory in NY.

A native of Israel, she started piano playing at the age of six.  Soon after, she garnered multiple awards and honors, and became a recipient of America Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship with distinction from 1992-2004, and later on of Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women Scholarship.

Her most influential teachers were pianists Natasha Tadson and Victor Derevianko in Israel, and Richard Goode at Mannes College of Music in New York where she completed her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Her musicianship teacher was the established Israeli composer Arie Shapira.

Renana became an American citizen in 2015 and makes her home in NYC.