Ravinia 2024 Issue 6

the costumes, Raoul Dufy created the décor, the Fratellini brothers pantomimed all the roles, and Vladimir Golschmann conducted the orchestra of 25 musicians. Milhaud detailed Cocteau’s absurdist scenario in Notes sans musique : “He imagined a scene in a bar in America during Prohibition. The vari- ous characters were highly typical: a Boxer, a Negro Dwarf, a Lady of Fashion, a Red-Headed Woman dressed as a man, a Bookmaker, a Gen- tleman in evening clothes. The Barman, with a face like that of Antinoüs, offers everyone cock- tails. After a few incidents and various dances, a Policeman enters, whereupon the scene is im- mediately transformed into a milk-bar. The cli- ents play a rustic scene and dance a pastorale as they sip glasses of milk. The Barman switches on a big fan, which decapitates the Policeman. The Red-Headed Woman executes a dance with the Policeman’s head, ending by standing on her hands like the Salome in Rouen Cathedral. One by one the customers drift away, and the Bar- man presents an enormous bill to the resuscitat- ed Policeman.” After the premiere, this music became staple entertainment in various reductions and im- provised arrangements at Moysés’s bar, which he opened at a new address (28 rue Boissy d’Anglas) on January 10, 1922, and renamed Le Boeuf sur le Toit. This establishment remained a popular gathering spot for artists and musicians throughout the 1920s (spawning its own slang terms, such as “ faire un boeuf ,” which meant “to have a jam session”) and remains in existence to this day, now at its fifth location in Paris. –Program notes © 2024 Todd E. Sullivan Le Boeuf sur le Toit at 28 rue Boissy d’Anglas YEVGENY KUTIK A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik im- migrated to the United States with his family at age 5. His 2014 album Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures features music he found in his family’s suitcase after leaving the Soviet Union in 1990. Beyond its debut at num- ber five on Billboard ’s Classical chart and New York Times and NPR features, Music from the Suitcase became a five-part docu-recital series journaling the family’s experience with Soviet anti-Semitism, months as a “stateless” refugee, and starting a new home in the US alongside Ku- tik’s performances. His most recent album, The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), highlights the Russian folklore embedded in Prokofiev’s music and new arrangements of folk melodies. All of his recordings are on Marquis Classics, including Sounds of Defiance (2012), Words Fail (2016), and Meditations on Family (2019), for which Kutik commissioned eight compos- ers to translate a personal family photo into a musical miniature for violin and ensemble—the project became a cover story in Strings maga- zine. Kutik holds degrees from Boston Universi- ty (bachelor’s) and New England Conservatory (master’s), and he made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with the Boston Pops as the win- ner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition. In 2006, he was awarded a Salon de Virtuosi Grant. Kutik recently made his Detroit Symphony debut premiering Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, an expansion of the composer’s The Poet’s Hour , which Kutik performed on a PBS special. He has also been a featured artist at The Kennedy Center and The Phillips Collection in DC, the Tanglewood and Verbier Festivals, New York’s National Sawdust, and Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Series. Passion- ate about his history, Kutik is an advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the orga- nization that assisted his family’s immigration, and regularly speaks and performs to both raise awareness and promote the assistance of refu- gees from around the world. Yevgeny Kutik is returning to Ravinia for the first time since his 2019 debut. RENANA GUTMAN Renana Gutman has performed across four continents as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and collaborative artist. A multifaceted pianist, she has played at the Louvre and Grenoble Mu- seums in France; Carnegie Hall, the Kaufman Center, and the People’s Symphony Concerts in New York; the Phillips Collection and the Freer and National Galleries in DC; Jordan Hall and the Gardner Museum in Boston; San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre; St. Petersburg’s Philharmonia; and the Stresa Music Festival, among numerous venues and series. She is also heard frequent- ly on WQXR Young Artists Showcase , WFMT Dame Myra Hess Series, and APM’s Perfor- mances Today . A native of Israel, Gutman began piano studies at age 6 and quickly earned schol- arships from the America Israel Cultural Foun- dation, and the Jewish Foundation for the Edu- cation of Women. She completed her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at Mannes College of Music, and was one of four pianists featured in a workshop on Beethoven piano sonatas led by Leon Fleisher at Carnegie Hall, where she performed the “Hammerklavier” and “Appas- sionata.” A top laureate of the Los Angeles Liszt Competition, New York International Keyboard Festival, and Tel-Hai Masterclasses, Gutman has performed concertos with the Jerusalem and Haifa Symphonies, Belgium’s I Fiamminghi, and Mannes College Orchestra. With the Marl- boro and Ravinia Festivals, she has collaborated with such luminaries as Miriam Fried, Richard Goode, Kim Kashkashian, Anthony McGill, Charles Neidich, and members of the Guarneri Quartet, among many others; toured with “Mu- sicians from Marlboro”; and performed cham- ber music and lieder extensively. Gutman tours regularly with Avery Fisher Grant-winning vi- olinist Alexi Kenney and co-founded the trio Terzetto. With the Echoes of Hope project, she is dedicated to highlighting Jewish composers lost in the Holocaust, such as Erwin Schulhof and Viktor Ullmann. Gutman joined the piano faculty of Bard College’s Longy School of Music in 2019, having previously been on the Yehudi Menuhin Music School (UK) faculty. Renana Gutman made her Ravinia debut in 2010 and was a Steans Music Institute fellow in 2011. She returned the summers of 2012–18 as a collabora- tive pianist on Steans and main-stage concerts. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 64 COREYHAYES(KUTIK);CARLOSANDRÉSDUEÑAS(GUTMAN)