Performance: Piano Concert at The Dalí
June 27 @ 6:00pm – 7:00pm
In conjunction with our special exhibition, Reimagining Nature: Dalí’s Floral Fantasies, join us for an evening of surreal creations, both musical and visual, with performances by some of the most gifted collegiate-level classical pianists in the world.
Brought to you in partnership with the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, a three-week immersive residency program, this satellite concert offers a rare opportunity for event attendees to experience the immense talent of these artists. These pianists are studying with Rebecca Penneys and 20 other mentors from around the country, a transformational opportunity and celebration of piano that continues this beloved instrument’s rich traditions and legacy. Each summer, the University of South Florida is home to these internationally acclaimed artists, who showcase exceptional talent on a global scale during the Festival.
Location: The Dalí Museum’s Will Raymund Theater
Tickets: $5
Gallery Admission is not included with this ticket purchase. You are encouraged to visit the galleries prior to the performance.
Guoanni (Annie) Qin is an accomplished pianist currently pursuing a Master of Music degree under the tutelage of Julian Martin at The Juilliard School. Born in 2001, Annie studied at the middle school attached to the Xinghai Conservatory of Music since 2013, where she was identified as one of the three potential talents in the piano department. This recognition led to an invitation to perform at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2017. In high school, Annie won 1st prize at both the Yamaha Music Scholarship Competition and the Kunst & Frieden International Piano Competition in Germany and also received 3rd prize at the Vanke Mesa Steinway Piano Competition. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree with Angela Cheng at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she distinguished herself through several notable achievements. Annie won Oberlin’s Senior Concerto Competition and Rudolf Serkin Scholarship Competition. She also received the Carol Nott Piano Pedagogy Prize, 3rd prize at the Peter Takacs Beethoven Piano Competition and performed in the Danenberg Honors Recital at Oberlin.
Annie’s performance highlights include Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Oberlin Orchestra under the baton of Raphael Jimenez in 2022 and a performance of the same concerto in 2021 with the Xiamen Song & Dance Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Xiaotang Xia. Annie’s exceptional talents have been recognized with other accolades, such as 1st prize at the Beijing International Piano Festival Competition and 2nd prize at the VII Paderewski International Piano Competition. Additionally, she was a finalist at the New York International Piano Competition in 2022.
From 2022 to 2024, Annie has participated in the renowned Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival. She is also a fellow of the 2024 Gilmore Festival. She has performed in numerous masterclasses led by distinguished musicians, including Maestro Andrzej Jasinski, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Dang Thai Son, Mikhail Voskresensky, Matti Raekallio, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert Lewin, Einar Steen-Nokleberg, Klaus Baessler, Peter Donohoe, Alexander Kobrin, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Douglas Humpherys, Haesun Paik, Alexander Korsantia, Vanessa Latarche, Roberto Plano, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Robert Shannon, Logan Skelton, Alvin Chow, Yafen Zhu, Yunlin Yang, Ying Wu, Cheung-Yu Mo, Hong Xu and others.
Jiusi (Jameson) Zhang began his piano studies at the age of four in his hometown, Langfang, China, where he was born in 2002. He did not receive any professional training until 2020, when he was admitted to the Oberlin College & Conservatory. He is currently a senior at Oberlin, pursuing a Bachelor of Music with Professor Dang Thai Son. Jiusi has been elected to membership in the National Music Honor Society, which represents the dual achievement of excellent academic work and outstanding musicianship. In addition to his formal studies, he is dedicated to bringing classical music to Oberlin’s retirement community and performed a series of recitals at Heiser Auditorium at Kendal at Oberlin.
He attended the 2022 PianoTexas International Piano Festival and the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He was one of three winners of the PianoTexas International Piano Festival Concerto Competition in 2022. Subsequently, Jiusi made his orchestral debut with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mr. Peter Bay at Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU, performing Beethoven’s third piano concerto.
Jiusi has attended numerous masterclasses from highly acclaimed musicians, including Asaf Zohar, Rebecca Penneys, Anne-Marie McDermott, Tamas Ungar, Pascal Nemirovski, Fabio Bidini, Stanislav Ioudenitch, and Dina Yoffe. Most recently, he won 1st place for the Marilyn Fischer & Joan Marie Scherer Scholarship at the 2024 Tuesday Musical Association Scholarship Competition in Akron. This fall, Jiusi will pursue a Master of Music degree with Professor Wei-Yi Yang at the Yale School of Music, where he received a full scholarship.
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, concertizing in all the continents north of Antarctica and representing the USA in Information Service State Department Cultural Tours over a ten-year period. She made her recital debut at age 9 and performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at 11. At 17, Rebecca received the unprecedented Special Critics’ Prize at the VII International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, an award created in her honor. Other prizes include two Naumburg Chamber Music Awards, Most Outstanding Musician Prize in the Vianna Da Motta Competition and top prize in the Paloma O’Shea Competition.
She made her NY Debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1972. Critics worldwide have acclaimed her live performances and recordings. An International Steinway Artist, Rebecca has received accolades for her ability to teach Motion and Emotion, an approach to keyboard technique that helps pianists achieve individual performance goals without physical strain or injury. Her former students hold teaching posts worldwide and include prizewinners in international competitions. Having completed 43 years of collegiate teaching, she retired in 2017 and is now Professor Emerita of Piano at Eastman with a courtesy Steinway-Artist-in-Residence at USF.
In 2021, Rebecca was inducted into the Steinway Teachers Hall of Fame. She was Chautauqua Piano Chair for 34 years and started its chamber music program. Launched in 2013, RPPF is her tuition-free festival, supported by the non-profit 501c3 Rebecca Penneys Friends of Piano, Inc. Her many CDs, DVDs, performance/teaching videos and Chicken Soup for Pianists are available online. Most recently, Rebecca has been a guest at the Royal Northern College of Music, Adamant Music School and PianoTexas. A graduate of Indiana University, her teachers include Aube Tzerko, Leonard Stein, Rosina Lhevinne, Artur Rubinstein, Menahem Pressler, György Sebök, Janos Starker and Josef Gingold. You can find her on rebeccapenneys.com and YouTube.
