Rebecca Penneys (born 1946) is an American-born pianist of Russian-Ukrainian-Jewish descent. She is a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral soloist, educator, and adjudicator. In 1965, she was the youngest contestant to enter the

International Chopin Competition The International Chopin Piano Competition (), often called the Chopin Competition, is a piano competition in Warsaw, Poland, held first in 1927 and every five years since 1955. The competition is one of the founding members of the World Federat ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Early life

Rebecca Penneys was born on October 2, 1946. Her mother, Rose Kaplan Penneys (1912–2010), worked for social causes, and her father, Alexander Penneys (1912–1994), was a doctor. Sol Kaplan, her uncle, was a pianist-conductor-composer, and her cousin,

Boris Gorelick Boris Gorelick (June 24, 1911-July 27, 1984) was an American printmaker and background artist. Biography Gorelick was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States when he was baby. When he was 10 years old, Gorelick attended drawing classes i ...

, was an artist. Raised as a prodigy, Penneys grew up in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

studying piano from the age of 3, and dance from the age of 5. Her primary mentors in California were

Carmelita Maracci Carmelita Maracci (July 17, 1908 – July 26, 1987) was an American concert dancer and choreographer who creatively combined ballet arts and Spanish techniques. She excelled when before an audience with dance experience, receiving enthusiastic pra ...

, dance, Victoria Front and Aube Tzerko, piano, and

Leonard Stein Leonard David Stein (December 1, 1916 – June 23, 2004) was an American musicologist, pianist, conductor and university teacher. He was influential in promoting contemporary music on the American West Coast. He was for years Arnold Schoenbe ...

, composition. She performed her first solo piano recital at the age of 9 and performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the age of 11. Other mentors were

Rosina Lhévinne Rosina Lhévinne (; (Бесси); March 29, 1880 – November 9, 1976) was a Russian and American pianist and famed pedagogue. Early life, education and family Rosina Bessie was the younger of two daughters of Maria (née Katz) and Jacques Bess ...

and

Artur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein KBE OMRI (; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish-American pianist."Ar ...

Education and career

Penneys attended

Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (shortly as BHHS or Beverly) is a public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills is Moreno High School, a small alternative school located on Beverly Hills High School's c ...

and continued her formal education at

Indiana University School of Music The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in Monroe County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. The population was 79,168 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-most populous city in Indiana and ...

, studying piano with

György Sebők György Sebők (November 2, 1922 – November 14, 1999) was a Hungarian-born American pianist and professor at the Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. He was known worldwide as a soloist with majo ...

and

Menahem Pressler Menahem Pressler (; 16 December 1923 – 6 May 2023) was a German-born Israeli-American pianist and academic teacher. He was known for his work with the Beaux Arts Trio that he co-founded in 1955, playing until its dissolution in 2008, in hund ...

, chamber music with Janos Starker and Josef Gingold, and composition with

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and enginee ...

. She advanced into the semi-finals and was awarded the unprecedented Special Critics' Prize at the Seventh

International Chopin Piano Competition The International Chopin Piano Competition (), often called the Chopin Competition, is a piano competition in Warsaw, Poland, held first in 1927 and every five years since 1955. The competition is one of the founding members of the World Federa ...

, an award created in her honor. She was awarded third prize in the 1975 Second Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition in Spain. In 1972, she made her New York debut at

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and Philanthropy, philanthropist whose donations assis ...

. The same year she was appointed to the faculty of the

University of North Carolina School of the Arts The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is a public art school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It grants a high school diploma, in addition to both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Founded in 1963 as the North Carolina Sc ...

. In 1974, she founded the New Arts Trio at the

Wisconsin Conservatory of Music The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music is an independent music school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It teaches classical, jazz, rock, folk, and blues and hosts musical concerts throughout the year. It is housed in a Neoclassical-style mansion built in ...

(with Carol Sindell, violin and Hamilton Cheifetz, cello). The Trio won the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music in 1980 (with

Piotr Janowski Piotr Janowski (5 February 1951 – 6 December 2008) was a Polish violinist and first Polish winner of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. Janowski was born in Grudziądz, Poland. At the age of 16 in 1967, he won the V International Henry ...

, violin and Steven Doane, cello). The Trio was Trio-in-Residence at the

Chautauqua Institution The Chautauqua Institution ( ) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education center and summer resort for adults and youth located on in Chautauqua, New York, northwest of Jamestown, New York, Jamestown in the western southern tier of New York (state), N ...

from 1978 to 2012 and has made two

United States Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA) was a United States government agency devoted to propaganda which operated from 1953 to 1999. Previously existing United States Information Service (USIS) posts operating out of U.S. embassies wor ...

Cultural State Department tours of Europe in 1985 and 1987. Penneys made a USIS State Department solo tour of Japan in 1980. She has taught and performed in such summer festivals as Sitka, Marlboro, Eastern, Aspen, Vermont Mozart, Montreal, Shawnigan Johannesen, Tel Hai Israel, Peninsula, Roycroft, Mammoth Lakes, Chautauqua, and Music Mountain.

Current professional life

Penneys was professor of piano at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

from 1980 to 2017 and chairwoman of the Chautauqua Institution Piano Department from 1985 to 2012. She now holds the title of Professor Emerita of Piano at Eastman School of Music. She was a resident artist as pianist-founder of the New Arts Trio at Chautauqua from 1978 to 2012. In 2013, Rebecca launched the Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano (non-profit 501c3) and the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival as a sequel to her well-known Chautauqua piano program. RPPF is an intense 3-week immersion piano festival. In 2017, she launched RPPF-Mini, a 3-day boot-camp for graduate pianists on career strategies. The University of South Florida in Tampa hosts the festival and Mini in its all-Steinway facility every July. Both RPPF and RPPF-Mini are tuition-free for college-age students worldwide. In 1999, she co-founded the Salon Chamber Music Series, a five concert series with Mikhail Kopelman, violin and Stefan Reuss, cello held at the Rochester Academy of Medicine. In 2001, she was appointed Artist-in-Residence at

St. Petersburg College St. Petersburg College (SPC) is a public college in St. Petersburg, Florida. Part of the Florida College System, SPC offers several associate and baccalaureate degree programs. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools ...

in St. Petersburg, Florida where she is director of the SPC Piano Series. In 2015, she was given a courtesy position as Steinway-Artist-in-Residence at the University of South Florida in Tampa. A devoted teacher, she has received recognition for teaching a keyboard technique (Motion and Emotion) that allows pianists to achieve individual performance goals without physical strain or injury. She was inducted into the Steinway Teacher Hall of Fame in 2021. Combining a busy concert schedule with seminars and master classes worldwide, she teaches international students at Eastman School of Music and at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival. Her current and former students include prizewinners in international competitions, and hold teaching posts on every continent. Penneys is a Steinway Artist and has given special concerts for

Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...

Works

Solo CDs, DVDs and HD Videos

On YouTube *Piano House Concert Performance - Chopin Op.25 *Piano House Performance - Brahms Op 39, Beethoven Klavierstūke *Rebecca Penneys: A Personal and Musical Portrait, Brahms Op 5, Debussy, De Falla *Legacy: Rebecca Penneys plays Chopin - B Min Sonata, Op.27, Berceuse, Scherzo *Piano House Concert: Rebecca Penneys plays Soler, Scarlatti, Brahms and Piano Rags Centaur Records: *Voice of the Piano CRC 2159 *Complete Chopin Etudes CRC 2210 Fleur De Son Classics: *All Brahms FDS 57938 *Chautauqua Gems from Chautauqua FDS 67956 *Music of the Dance FDS *An Eastman Recital FDS 57968 *Rebecca Penneys & Steinway FDS 57971 *Bicentennial Tribute FDS 58012 *Rebecca Penneys: A Personal and Musical Portrait FDS 58037 Blu-Ray DVD *Legacy: Rebecca Penneys plays Frédéric Chopin FDS 58045 Blu-Ray DVD *Piano House Concert: Rebecca Penneys plays Soler, Scarlatti, Brahms and Piano Rags FDS 58050 DVD

Trio recordings

Fleur De Son Classics: *Beethoven Arrangements for Piano Trio FDS 57931 *New Arts Trio in Recital FDS 57957 *New Arts Trio: 30th Anniversary Recital FDS 58000 *Society For Chamber Music; New Arts Trio: Beethoven Archduke SCMR 0005—1998 *Rochester Academy Of Medicine; Centennial Concert 2001

Publications

*"Chicken Soup for Pianists" a virtual book (text and video), available on Kindle & iBooks (2020) *"Fundamentals of Flow in Learning Music" by Rebecca Penneys & Ray Gottlieb (1993–1994) *"Harmful Practices That Cause Injuries" *Clavier Magazine, The Instrumentalist (1994) *"Motion and Emotion", Clavier Magazine, The Instrumentalist (1992) *"For Carmelita", Leaflets – University of Rochester (1991) *Guest Editor, Seminars in Neurology, Thieme Publications, New York (1989) *"Motion and Emotion: A Discussion of the Interaction Between Physical Motion and Human Emotion", Seminars in Neurology, Thieme Publications (1989) *"Maachem" (1979)

References

External links

Rebecca Penneys official website

Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival
* Founder-Directo
Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival
2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Penneys, Rebecca Living people Prize-winners of the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition American classical pianists American women classical pianists American people of Russian-Jewish descent 1946 births 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American women pianists 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century American women pianists 21st-century American pianists Jewish American musicians Jewish classical pianists Centaur Records artists