Biography of Rebecca Penneys

Pianist Rebecca Penneys is a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral soloist, educator and adjudicator. For almost six decades she has been hailed as a pianist of prodigious talent. Rebecca has played throughout the USA, East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Europe, Middle East and Canada. She is a popular guest artist, keynote speaker and teacher nationally and internationally. She is also Steinway Artist and has given many concerts exclusively for Steinway & Sons. Combining a busy concert schedule with seminars and master classes worldwide, she teaches international students at Eastman School of Music and at the Chautauqua Music Festival. Her current and former students include prizewinners in international competitions, and hold important teaching posts on every continent.

Rebecca made her recital debut at age 9, and performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra when she was 11. At 17, after winning many young artist competitions in the USA she was awarded the unprecedented Special Critics' Prize at the Seventh International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, an award created in her honor. Additionally, she won the Most Outstanding Musician Prize at the Fifth Vianna Da Motta International Piano Competition (Portugal) and was top prizewinner in the Second Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition (Spain). In 1974, she founded the acclaimed New Arts Trio, which twice won the prestigious Naumburg Award for Chamber Music (New York). The trio has been Trio-in-Residence at the Chautauqua Institution since 1978 and has made three USIS Cultural State Department tours of Europe.

2010 marks Rebecca's 30th year at Eastman School of Music. She has been professor of piano at Eastman since 1980 and chairwoman of the Chautauqua Institution Piano Department since 1985. She has been a resident artist at the Chautauqua Festival since 1978. In 2001 she was appointed visiting artist at St. Petersburg College. At home in Rochester she is founder-pianist (1999) of the Salon Chamber Music Series, a five concert series at the Rochester Academy of Medicine and she is also founder and artistic director (2009) of a very popular young artist series called Eastman Piano Series at the Summit. In 2010 Rebecca became co- founder and artistic chair of the Steinway Society of Tampa Bay.

Rebecca's teachers include Aube Tzerko, Leonard Stein, Rosina Lhevinne, Artur Rubinstein, Menahem Pressler, Gyorgy Sebok and Janos Starker. She has been recognized for her ability to teach a natural keyboard technique that allows pianists to achieve performance goals and handle stress without physical strain or injury. At the Chautauqua Festival, she has created an extremely popular summer program combining traditional and innovative classes that is unique in the world of piano instruction. Additionally she has taught and performed in such summer festivals as Sitka, Marlboro, Eastern, Aspen, Vermont Mozart, Montreal, Shawnigan Johannesen, Peninsula, Roycroft, Mammoth Lakes, and Music Mountain.

In 2008, Rebecca celebrated her 30th consecutive season at Chautauqua. Her latest CD, just released is New Arts Trio at Chautauqua: 30th Anniversary Recital, and features works written for the Trio in 2008. Rebecca has eleven current CDs on Fleur De Son Classics and Centaur Records.

"Penneys offers an extraordinary collection of performances displaying an astonishing control over piano sound. It is absolutely gorgeous and full of unimaginable colors. She sings through the instrument, seemingly without effort. Her playing is simply revelatory."