Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival (RPPF) Returns July 6-24 at USF

The celebrated Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival (RPPF) is scheduled to return live, July 6-24, 2021, at the University of South Florida (USF) Barness Hall. The tuition-free festival brings together 36 of the world’s aspiring collegiate pianists, who are selected from an extensive list of applicants world-wide.

Tuition for students is covered by Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano, a non-profit 501c3 organization, supported entirely by private donations. The students are joined by 21 world-class faculty, who work closely with students over the 19-day festival, providing a semester’s worth of private lessons, nightly masterclasses, special topic classes, faculty presentations, performance opportunities, and abundant practice time on Steinway pianos.

“Our goal is to offer each student – and the world of piano -- a unique view of many different philosophies in teaching and performing styles,” said Penneys. “In addition, RPPF Mini, included in this year’s festival, provides a forum for helping collegiate pianists take their next career step.”

Chicken Soup for Pianists

In addition to the tuition free program, all students, faculty and attendees will receive a copy of Penneys’ newly released Chicken Soup for Pianists, a combination of written and video content that expands upon the importance of creating an emotional connection between pianist, piano and audience. Specific sections include breath, feeling, balance, awareness and habit. The virtual book was recently released and is available on Amazon, RebeccaPenneys.com and Apple Books. Additional performances, narrative and interpretations can be found on RebeccaPenneysYouTube channel.

Health & Safety Protocols

Penneys, along with staff at USF, have worked closely to establish health and safety guidelines for all students and faculty and will continue to closely monitor CDC and USF guidelines. Due to COVID restrictions, this season’s daily masterclasses, ambassador concerts, soiree recital series and legacy forums, which have been previously open to the public, will only be available via streaming video and on YouTube free of charge. A schedule of events will be announced in early summer.

More information

For more information on the festival, visit www.rebeccapenneyspianofestival.com. The website also includes information on how to submit an application for Watch and Study students.

For more information on supporting RPPF and Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano

https://rebeccapenneyspianofestival.org/support-contact/

About Rebecca Penneys & RPPF

A renowned Steinway Artist, Rebecca Penneys is a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral soloist, educator, adjudicator, guest artist, keynote speaker and celebrated teacher. For over six decades she has been hailed as a pianist of prodigious talent, performing throughout the USA, East Asia, New Zealand, South America, Europe, Middle East and Canada. She represented the United States in United States Information Service State Department Cultural tours over a ten-year period. Her current and former students include prizewinners in international competitions and hold important teaching posts on every continent.

In 2013, Penneys launched the non-profit Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano to support the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival and RPPF-Mini. Both events, held at USF, are for collegiate pianists and are tuition free.

Penneys is currently Professor Emerita of Piano at Eastman School of Music, Artist-in-Residence at St. Petersburg College where she runs the SPC Piano Series and holds a Courtesy-Steinway-Artist-in-Residence position at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Her many CDs and DVDs are available on Amazon. Fanfare magazine (2019) notes,“Penneys playing is nothing short of amazing.” Penneys teachers included Aube Tzerko, Leonard Stein, Rosina Lhevinne, Artur Rubinstein, Menahem Pressler, Gyorgy Sebok, Janos Starker, Josef Gingold, and Iannis Xenakis. For more information, visit www.rebeccapenneys.com and www.rebeccapenneyspianofestival.com. Narrative, interpretations and performances can also be found on RebeccaPenneysYouTube channel.