[2] He moved with his family to the United States in 1962,[3] studying 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.
[4] He later worked extensively with American pianist William Masselos, a pupil of Carl Friedberg, who himself had studied with Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
[8][9][10][11] 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.
[12] On August 23, 1970, Gutiérrez made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta in Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto.
[24] Gutiérrez's recordings include: He won the silver medal and was the top American prize-winner at 21 years of age in the 1970 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Soviet Union.