Celebrated worldwide, the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival (RPPF) launches its 10th Season.
The University of South Florida (USF) School of Music will host RPPF June 28 – July 18, 2022.
Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival is supported entirely by private donations to Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano, a non-profit 501c3 organization. The students are joined by 23 world-class faculty who work closely with them during the three-week festival. RPPF provides each participant with 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 this 10th anniversary season, the tuition-free festival will bring together 39 of the world’s aspiring collegiate classical pianists from 17 countries who were selected from a very large applicant pool. This summer’s landmark season has as its theme, Legacy of Piano and Planet.
Award-winning American composer Kenneth Frazelle will unveil a 5–7-minute work for solo piano composed and dedicated to RPPF “celebrating the legacy, enthusiasm, and imagination of its 10th anniversary season.”
To further commemorate the 10th year, Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano Inc. donated $1,000 to two non-profit organization to further the health and legacy of our world: $1,000 to One Tree Planted Inc. to plant 1,000 trees in North America to help with global reforestation efforts; $1,000 to United National Women’s League of America, Inc. to give humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine.
As part of her continuing personal mission to boost education and art in the Tampa Bay area, Rebecca, who is founder and director of RPPF as well as Professor Emerita of Piano at Eastman School of Music, created the Rebecca Penneys Graduate Collective at USF which guarantees five tuition-free graduate awards to five lucky students for their two-year Master of Music degree program.
To learn more about this summer’s RPPF events visit rebeccapenneyspianofestivsal@gmail.com
