Performing mvts 2 and 3 of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 8 in Bb major, Op. 84
Born in Siberia, Luba Poliak made her debut playing Mozart concerto with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eleven. In 1990, she immigrated to Israel, where she continued her studies and graduated magna cum laude from the Rubin Academy in Tel-Aviv. She studied in Brussels and earned her Master’s Degree with Honors at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Ms. Poliak completed her doctorate in 2008 at Stony Brook University, where she worked and coached with Gilbert Kalish, Pamela Frank, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr and members of The Emerson String Quartet.
After winning the Stony Brook Concerto Competition in 2004, Ms. Poliak performed with the Stony Brook Symphony, conducted by David Stern. The same year her performances at the Sydney competition were aired on ABC Classic FM in Australia. Luba Poliak has been performing solo and chamber music recitals across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia at the venues such as Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, Belgium; Jordan Hall, Boston; Dame Myra Hess Concert Memorial Series, Chicago, IL; 92nd Street Y and Harvard Club, New York City; Bulgarian Embassy, Washington D.C.; Dudley Hall, Houston and the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. Ms. Poliak has received numerous grants from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and was a fellow at music festivals such as Aspen, Colorado; Verbier, Switzerland and the exclusive “German for Singers and Vocal Coaches” program at Middlebury College, Vermont.
Dedicated to music education of the younger generation, Ms. Poliak was invited to give master classes and lecture – recitals at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, University of Houston and Lehman College in New York. During the fall Semester 2010, Ms. Poliak served as a full time visiting piano faculty at the Lawrence University, WI. She was invited again to teach there the spring term of 2013. Luba Poliak teaches and performs regularly at such festivals as Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston, Heifetz Music Festival, Bowdoin Festival and Bard College Piano Camp. Last summer she was invited to teach and perform in south of France where she will return with more performances in the summer 2013.
Currently, Ms. Poliak is a piano and chamber music faculty at the 92nd Street Y school of music in New York.
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Performing mvts from Schubert Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor, D. 845, Op. 42
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, Haifa Symphony, Belgian “I Fiamminghi”, Mannes College Orchestra.
An ardent interpreter of Beethoven, she 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.
She 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). Much affiliated with vocalists, she has performed with Lincoln Center soprano Susan Naruki and Metropolitan Opera mezzosoprano Tamara Mumford.
Since 2012, She serves as the staff collaborative pianist of Steans Institute at Ravinia Festival. This season plays solo and chamber music at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, NY, Ravinia Rising Stars, Chicago and Herbst Theatre, St. Francisco and Marlboro College, VT.
Her last seasons with duo partner, violinist Dan Zhu, included Ravinia Rising Stars, Washington National Gallery, Stresa Music Festival, Italy and a tour in South Africa.
From 2008-2010 Renana had been on the piano faculty of the Yehudi Menuhin Music School in the UK. She currently teaches at 92nd Street Y, and Bard College Preparatory.
Her former piano trio, “Terzetto”, with violinist Diana Cohen and cellist Tanyay Ell, won first Prize at the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition in Ohio, performed Beethoven Triple Concerto with Lansing Symphony. The trio has been featured at “Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival”, the Banff Center, Canada, Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival, North Carolina and Saugatuck Music Festival, Michigan.
A native of Israel, she started piano playing at the age of six. Soon recognized as a prodigy garnering multiple awards and honors, 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 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 establish composer Arik Shapira.
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