Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates


	Penelope Crawford FORTEPIANO/HARPSICHORD
			“Crawford played with an assured, self-effacing musicianship that put the focus of the evening squarely on the music and the instruments rather than on the performer. This is the highest kind of art—the kind that does not need to call attention to itself.” The Washington Post “The exquisite playing of Penelope Crawford was the musical highlight of the meeting; her recital of fantasias communicated the spiritual essence of the music at the highest level. The profundity, the wit, and the purely musical values of the composers were realized on instruments appropriate to the repertoire.” The American Organist “The most outstanding player award must go to Penelope Crawford, whose sensitive interpretation of the concerto was the highlight of the evening. Every melody sang, and her impressive technique was never ostentatious.” The Ann Arbor News “Among five fine musicians...[harpsichordist] Crawford was outstanding. She somehow managed to put a lilt, an expressive edge into an instrument that cannot be made easily expressive. But she is no limpid Romanticist; her playing is hearty and powerful.” The Milwaukee Journal

	PRESS KIT BIO EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS PHOTO ARTIST WEB SITE GREAT LAKES PAA HOME UPCOMING CONCERTS ABOUT PAA EDUCATION: CARAVAN AUDITIONS CONTACT PAA		Internationally acclaimed as one of America's master performers on historical keyboard instruments, Penelope Crawford has appeared as soloist with modern and period instrument orchestras, and as recitalist and chamber musician on major North American concert series, including those of the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress in Washington, and Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and Merkin Hall in New York, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, and the Ordway Theater in Minneapolis. Many of her performances have also been broadcast over National Public Radio. She has performed and lectured at national keyboard conferences, and has served as a judge for several international competitions. As a faculty member of the University of Michigan and the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, Ms. Crawford is frequently invited to give lectures and masterclasses at colleges and universities across the country. In an effort to establish stronger connections between performance and scholarship, she has served as artistic planner and performing participant in several important international festivals and scholarly conferences, two of which received major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities: the *Michigan MozartFest (1989 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) co-sponsored by the University Musical Society and the University of Michigan School of Music; Schubert's Piano Music, (1995 in Washington D. C.), co-sponsored by The Westfield Center and the Smithsonian Institution; Beyond Notation: The Performance and Pedagogy of Improvisation in Mozart’s Music*, (2002 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) co-sponsored by The Westfield Center and the University of Michigan. Crawford received performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan, and also studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Her teachers include well-known pedagogues Cécile Genhart, Rosina Lhevinne, Guido Agosti, Kurt Neumüller and Gyorgy Sandor. An avid collector of historical keyboards, Ms. Crawford includes among her instruments both originals and reproductions of 18th- and 19th-century pianos and harpsichords. Her recordings of solo and chamber music for fortepiano and harpsichord have appeared on Timegate, Titanic, Wild Boar, Loft, and Musica Omnia labels.