Eliezer Gutman
First Violin · Concertmaster
Member since 2000
Eliezer Gutman has been a violinist almost all his life. As a young child, he joined a youth orchestra in his native Israel and “it became my second home. I loved being there with all my musician friends.” Gutman still loves to be in that world he entered as a boy and constantly expands his musical sphere, learning from his peers, his students, and his audiences. But he intended to enter an entirely different profession.
Gutman attended college in Haifa, Israel where he studied engineering and received a degree in Industry and Management from Technion Institute. But he “constantly played the violin and always practiced.” He decided to pursue the violin as a profession and came to the United States in 1990 to study at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, where he received his Master’s in Violin Performance. Gutman has been living in Delaware for the past 30 years, but his busy musical career takes him throughout the Mid-Atlantic and internationally.
Gutman strives for artistic focus and consistency. “I am involved in several musical groups, and each one bears its own challenges.” Performance styles vary: In an orchestra, he’s “a team player.” As a soloist, he must represent the composer’s intention. And as a chamber music performer, “my focus is to lead the ensemble” to play as a unit. “I face these challenges by maintaining a daily routine of practice,” a discipline he loves and one whose consistency has enabled him to cope with pandemic closures and cancellations.
A dedicated teacher, Gutman carries on the devoted pedagogy he experienced under Avigdor Zamir (in Israel) and David Arben (in the U.S.). He works with student to instill a love of the instrument, giving them “tools to understand the [violin’s] complexity while enjoying the output of their playing and achieving their best at their level.” A longtime faculty member at both the Music School of Delaware and St. Andrews High School in Middletown, Gutman has also travelled each summer since 2011 – except during the pandemic – to New York State’s Adirondack Mountains, where he serves on the violin faculty of Luzerne Music Center, a place close to his heart.
“Grateful and humble to win the DDOA Fellowship,” Gutman plans to expand his professional capabilities, possibly purchasing a new bow, computerizing his musical library, or commissioning a new work for himself or the Copeland String Quartet. He also is an avid cook and spends welcome time with his family, but his earliest social interactions still resonate powerfully. “I love my violin and my musician colleagues.”