Internationally-acclaimed concert pianist Rebecca Penneys has long commuted between St. Pete and New York every other week, to teach at the Eastman School of Music.

Her infectious sense of humor and the joy she finds in sharing music run throughout this vibrant conversation. Penneys talks about how training as a dancer – and almost giving up piano to pursue a professional ballet career – now shapes the way she plays piano, and the way she teaches even students with carpal tunnel and stress-related injuries to play the piano so it feels like they are having a massage.

Rebecca shares her true love, the international piano festival she hosts each summer at USF Tampa. She hosts 40 students from around the world, for free, to learn in a non-competitive environment from a variety of world-class teachers, and to share their music in free performances all over Tampa Bay.

rebeccapenneyspianofestival.org

Music selections from:
Rebecca Penneys & Steinway, Fleur de Son Classics 2005
Recital Gems from Chatauqua, Fleur de Son Classics 2002
All Brahms, Fleur de Son Classics 2000

 

Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley.
Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.