Pianist Rebecca Penneys is a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral soloist, educator and adjudicator. For over 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 an exclusive Steinway Artist and has given many concerts for Steinway & Sons. Combining a busy concert schedule with seminars and master classes worldwide, she has taught international students at Eastman School of Music for thirty-seven years, at the Chautauqua Music Festival for thirty-four years, and at RPPF for five years. 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). She made her New York Debut in Alice Tully Hall in 1972. In 1974, she founded the acclaimed New Arts Trio, which twice won the prestigious Naumburg Award for Chamber Music (New York City).

In July 2017, Rebecca became Professor Emerita of Piano at Eastman School of Music. She became Artist-in-Residence at St. Petersburg College, Florida in 2001, and since 2015 she holds a courtesy position as Steinway-Artist-in-Residence at the University of South Florida. She has been director of the St Petersburg Piano Series in Florida since 2007, founder-pianist of the Salon Chamber Music Series at the Rochester Academy of Medicine since 1997 and founder-director of Eastman Piano Series at the Summit since 2009. Rebecca launched the Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano (non-profit 501c3) and the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in 2013. The University of South Florida in Tampa hosts the tuition-free festival every July. RPPF-Mini, a 5-day seminar for strategies in career development for pianists, had a successful debut in January 2018 at St Petersburg College Gibbs Campus. Join us for Mini 2019!

Rebecca’s teachers include Aube Tzerko, Leonard Stein, Rosina Lhevinne, Artur Rubinstein, Menahem Pressler, Gyorgy Sebok, Janos Starker, Josef Gingold, and Iannis Xenakis. She has taught and performed in such summer festivals as Sitka, Marlboro, Eastern, Aspen, Vermont Mozart, Montreal, Tel Hai Israel, Shawnigan Johannesen, Peninsula, Roycroft, Mammoth Lakes, Eastern, and Music Mountain. Rebecca has more than a dozen current CDs on Fleur De Son Classics and Centaur Records. Her 1st DVD for Naxos was released in February 2018 with music of Brahms, Debussy and De Falla. Fanfare Review. Her 2nd DVD celebrates the music of Chopin; No 3 DVD underscores the spirituality of Brahms and enjoys Soler, Scarlatti and piano rags. Visit her on-line at www.rebeccapenneys.com & www.rebeccapenneyspianofestival.org