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 concertized throughout all the continents north of Antarctica and she has represented the United States on United States Information Service State Department Cultural tours. She is a popular guest artist, keynote speaker and pedagogue. She is an International Steinway Artist, has given many concerts for Steinway & Sons and was inducted into The Steinway Teacher Hall of Fame. Combining a busy concert schedule with seminars and master classes worldwide, she taught international students at Eastman School of Music for thirty-seven years, and at the Chautauqua Music Festival for thirty-four years. She has taught at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival since its inception. 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. Since 2001 she has been Artist-in-Residence at St. Petersburg College, Florida and in 2007 she was appointed director of the St Petersburg College Piano Series.  In 2015 she was appointed Courtesy-Steinway-Artist-in-Residence at the University of South Florida. She continues as founder-pianist of the Salon Chamber Music Subscription Series at the Rochester Academy of Medicine which started in 1997, and founder-director of Eastman Piano Series at the Summit which she started in 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 collegiate tuition-free festival every summer. RPPF-Mini, a seminar that explores strategies in career development, is currently part of RPPF.

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 Southeastern Music Festival, Sitka, Marlboro, Eastern, Aspen, Vermont Mozart, Montreal, Tel Hai Israel, Shawnigan Johannesen, Peninsula, Roycroft, Mammoth Lakes, Eastern Music Festival, and Music Mountain. Rebecca has more than a dozen current CDs on Fleur De Son Classics and Centaur Records. Her 1st DVD includes music of Brahms, Debussy and De Falla; the 2nd DVD celebrates the music of Chopin; No 3 DVD underscores the spirituality of Brahms and enjoys Soler, Scarlatti, and two piano rags.