R O B E R T A  R U S T, piano (U.S.A)

ROBERTA RUST has inspired audiences and captivated critics on four continents with concert programming and a discography that reveal eclectic imagination and artistic range. Her recent CD release, Devoted to Debussy, joins acclaimed discs Franz Joseph Haydn, Piano Music of Villa-Lobos and Three American Premieres & the Prokofieff Sonata No. 6. Ms. Rust has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia, the New Philharmonic, and orchestras throughout Latin America in concerti of Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Saint-Saens and Bartok. As an outstanding chamber musician, she has played with the Lark, Ying, and Amernet String Quartets, members of the Empire Brass Quintet, and as a duo-pianist with her husband, Phillip Evans. Born in Texas of Euro-American and Sioux ancestry, Ms. Rust currently lives in Boynton Beach, Florida. She studied at the Peabody Conservatory, graduated "summa cum laude" from the University of Texas at Austin, and received performer's certificates in piano and German Lieder from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She earned her master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music and her doctorate at the University of Miami. Her teachers included Ivan Davis, Artur Balsam, John Perry, and Phillip Evans and master class studies were with Gary Graffman, Leon Fleisher, and Carlo Zecchi. She served as Artistic Ambassador for the United States and has been the recipient of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded additional grants and prizes from the Organization of American States, National Society of Arts & Letters, and the International Concours de Fortepiano in Paris. Pulitzer-Prize winning music critic Tim Page wrote in The New York Times: "Roberta Rust is a powerhouse of a pianist - one who combines an almost frightening fervor and intensity with impeccable technique and spartan control." The Miami Herald described her as follows: "There was tremendous bravura, sweep and power ... Here was a virtuosa." Ms. Rust serves as Artist Faculty-Piano, Professor, and Head of the Piano Department at the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. She gives master classes internationally, serves as an adjudicator for piano competitions, and has written articles for such publications as Clavier Magazine. In addition to piano teaching, she coaches chamber music, teaches Music Entrepreneurship and has taught Music History, Piano Pedagogy and Literature. Ms. Rust also served on the faculties of Florida International University and the Harid Conservatory.