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Rebecca Penneys leads a
distinguished career as a recitalist, chamber musician,
orchestral soloist and educator. For four decades her
intelligent and insightful performances have held audiences
spellbound. She combines a busy concert schedule with guidance
for an international class of students at Eastman and
Chautauqua, and gives master classes and seminars at other major
teaching institutions worldwide. She has been Professor of Piano
at Eastman since 1980 and Chairs the Piano Department at the
Chautauqua Institution where she has been a resident artist and
teacher for twenty-three consecutive seasons. She has created a
program there which is unique in the world of piano instruction.
Born in Los Angeles, Rebecca made her debut at the age of nine
and performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at
the age of eleven. At seventeen, after winning many young artist
competitions in the United States, she was awarded the
unprecedented Special Critics' Prize for her performances at the
Seventh International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw,
Poland. Subsequently, she won of 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 won the
prestigious Naumburg Award for Chamber Music (New York), on two
separate occasions. The Trio has been Trio-in-Residence at the
Chautauqua Institution since1978. Her teachers include Aube
Tzerko, Leonard Stein, Rosina Lhevinne, Artur Rubinstein,
Menahem Pressler, Gyorgy Sebok and Janos Starker.
As a performer Rebecca has appeared in East Asia, New Zealand,
Australia, Europe, Israel, South America, and throughout the
United States and Canada as soloist and chamber musician. She
has performed numerous Sound/Color recitals exploring the
connections between the sensory system and sound, color and
music. In the last few seasons she was keynote speaker,
performer and teacher at North Carolina Music Teachers
Association Conventions in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Fayetteville,
as well as Guest Teacher at the Tel Hai International Music
Festival, Israel. She was also featured artist/teacher on the
Pabst Theater Series, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and performed and
taught in California, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina,
New York City area, Wisconsin, Ontario and Quebec. She gave
recitals and masterclasses at such schools as Roosevelt Musical
College, New England Conservatory, Longy School, Grinnell
College, Skidmore College and Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.
She was guest artist at the American Liszt Society Convention,
the University of Iowa’s Distinguished Artist Series, and Artist
Series at L'Elegance in Sarasota, Florida.
This season concerts and master classes take her to Australia,
South Korea, Beijing, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Bali. In 2000-2001
Rebecca will be going to Brazil and Colombia, South America
andSouth Korea. Ms. Penneys gives world premieres in Rochester,
New York on a regular basis. Closer to home she will be
performing in Chautauqua, Toronto, Montreal, Buffalo, Milwaukee,
Harrisburg and Olean. She performs annually with the Rochester
Chamber Music Society, Chautauqua Chamber Music Society,
Roycroft Festival and Salon Concerts at the Academy.
As a pedagogue, Ms. Penneys has received extensive recognition
in academic and medical circles for her ability to teach an
approach to keyboard technique (Motion and Emotion) that that
allows pianists to achieve individual performance goals without
physical strain or injury. In January 1999, she was interviewed
about her teaching techniques for National Public Radio’s
program the “Infinite Mind.” For the past sixteen years she has
given annual “Motion and Emotion” summer seminars at Eastman. In
1993 the seminar consisted of a discussion and performance of
the complete Chopin Etudes. In 1994 the seminar focused on
Tension, Attention and Intention. The 1995 and 1996 seminars
continued this theme and emphasized Pathways to Better Learning,
Practicing, Performing and Teaching. The topic for 1997 was the
Aural History of Piano Sound. In 1998 the seminar focused on a
Portrait of Chopin; the 1999 theme was The Flexible Pianist. It
explored solo and chamber/collaborative learning, rehearsal and
performance techniques.
At the Chautauqua Festival, Ms. Penneys has created a mix of
traditional and innovative classes designed to augment standard
academic education. The program is dedicated to widening
perspectives on performing and learning and strives to
understand and encourage the uniqueness of each student's
talents and career goals.
Ms Penneys’ PBS television program for the Musical Encounters
series, The Piano: Its Sounds and Moods has been shown numerous
times on national TV. She has been guest editor of a special
summer issue of Seminars in Neurology, a publication devoted to
music and medicine. Her article entitled "Motion and Emotion"
appeared in the September 1992 issue of Clavier. She has
co-authored a book (1994) with Dr.Raymond Gottlieb entitled The
Fundamentals of Flow in Learning Music. Appearing soon will be
an interview in Clavier magazine.
As adjudicator, Ms. Penneys' recent activities have included
judging the Stravinsky Awards in Illinois. She was the American
judge at the Vianna Da Motta International Piano Competition in
Macao in April 1999.
Ms Penneys has three recent solo CD's available. The Voice of
the Piano, works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Gershwin
and The Complete Chopin Etudes both on the Centaur label, and
All Brahms, a CD which includes the ten Hungarian Dances
arranged by Brahms for two hands, Op.10 Ballads and Op.116
Fantasies on Fleur De Son Classics. An all-Chopin CD will be
released this spring. The New Arts Trio has two new CD's on the
Fleur De Son label: the Arensky Trios and Beethoven's
Arrangements for Piano Trio - the 2nd Symphony & the Septet.
Other Penneys recordings are available on the CBS-Sony,
Pantheon, Orion labels, and the Society for Chamber Music,
Rochester, New York.
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