Horacio Gutiérrez

Early life and education

Gutiérrez was born in Havana, Cuba, the eldest of four children, to Tomás V. Gutiérrez and Josefina Fernandez Gutiérrez. His mother was his first piano teacher, and was herself an accomplished pianist. His first formal teacher was César Pérez Sentenat. Gutiérrez began performing before audiences at four years of age, and at 11, performed as soloist with the Havana Symphony playing Haydn's D major concerto. When Fidel Castro gained control of Cuba in 1959, the family decided to leave the country together rather than send Gutiérrez abroad alone at a young age.

He moved with his family to the United States in 1961, at the age of 13, and studied in Los Angeles with Sergei Tarnowsky, Vladimir Horowitz's first teacher in Kiev, and later at the Juilliard School under Adele Marcus, a pupil of Russian pianist Josef Lhévinne. He later worked extensively with American pianist William Masselos, a pupil of Carl Friedberg, who himself had studied with Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

Career

He was first seen on American television in 1966, on one of the Young People's Concerts with Leonard Bernstein, playing "The Great Gate of Kiev" from Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modest Mussorgsky.

On August 23, 1970, Gutiérrez made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta conducting Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto. Martin Bernheimer, music critic with the Los Angeles Times, described his first appearance with the orchestra as "spectacular."

He currently lives and works in the United States. He met his wife, pianist Patricia Asher, while she was studying with William Masselos and Adele Marcus at the Juilliard School.

He was M.D. Anderson Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Houston from 1996-2003. He is currently teaching at Manhattan School of Music.

Gutiérrez's performance career spans over four decades and he is considered by many piano connoisseurs to be one of the great pianists of the 20th century. Gutiérrez suffers from bursitis and a chronic back injury.

Television

Performance and awards

He won the Silver Medal in the 1970 International Tchaikovsky Competition and was soon presented in major world-wide concert venues by Sol Hurok's management. After his debut recital in London, Joan Chissell, music critic with The Times (London) wrote, His virtuosity is of the kind of which legends are made. He has played with major orchestras and conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Andrew Davis, Josef Krips, Mstislav Rostropovich, David Zinman, Gerard Schwarz, Andrew Litton, Kurt Masur, James Levine, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Eugene Ormandy, Valery Gergiev, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Erich Leinsdorf, Yuri Ahronovitch, Klaus Tennstedt, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim and many others.

In 1982, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize in recognition of his musical achievements.

Gutiérrez is best known for his interpretation of the Romantic repertoire. He has been highly praised for performances of the Classical style in music of composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms.

He won an Emmy Award for his fourth appearance with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

He was featured in Harold C. Schonberg's work The Great Pianists: From Mozart to Present.

He has recorded for EMI, Telarc, and Chandos Records.

Gutiérrez's recordings include:

Gutiérrez is a strong champion of contemporary American composers. He has performed works by William Schuman, André Previn, and George Perle. His most recent recording, "George Perle: A Retrospective," was named one of the ten best recordings of 2006 by The New Yorker. Perle dedicated Nine Bagatelles to Gutiérrez.