Praised by the New York Sun for playing «with great vigor and aplomb» and for the «true poetry in her phrasing», Renana Gutman has performed across three continents as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and collaborative artist.
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, Belgian I Fiamminghi, Mannes College Community Orchestra and Doctors Orchestral Society of New York. Her versatile recordings have been heard and seen on British Bbc, American Npr and Israeli Voice of Music radio stations and television.
An ardent interpreter of Beethoven, she was one of four young pianists selected by 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.
For the last three summers she was in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival where she has collaborated with Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Guarneri and Mendelssohn string quartets. Much affiliated with vocalists, she has performed with Lincoln Center soprano Susan Naruki and Metropolitan Opera mezzo Tamara Mumford. Her readings of contemporary and twentieth century composers such as Crumb, Currier, Ives, Saariaho, Kurtag, Ben-Haim, were heard at Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, Walden Music School, New Music Mannes and several universities in the United States. A recent debut of her piano trio with violinist Diana Cohen and cellist Tanya Ell was praised in Cleveland by the “Plain Dealer” and was in residence at The Banff Center last summer.
This upcoming year her chamber music and solo performances include a tour with “Musicians from Marlboro”, a residence in Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival (NC) with her trio and a performance of Brahms second piano concerto. She will play in venues like Metropolitan Museum (NY), Elizabeth Gardner Museum (Boston), The Sheldon (St. Louis) and others. In September 2008 she has joined the piano faculty of Yehudi Menuhin Music School in the Uk.
A native of Israel, Renana started piano playing at the age of six. Soon recognized as a prodigy garnering multiple awards and honours, she 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 in Israel and Richard Goode at Mannes College of Music in New York where she completed her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Other instructors and mentors were Victor Derevianko, Andras Schiff, Martin Isepp, Pnina Salzman, Marcel Baudet and Vladimir Feltsman.