Roberta Rust

Roberta Rust has concertized to critical acclaim around the globe, with performances at such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, Rio de Janeiro’s Sala Cecília Meireles, Washington’s Corcoran Gallery, Havana’s Basilica, and Seoul’s KNUA Hall. Hailed for her recordings on PARMA (Navona), Centaur, and Protone labels, Rust has appeared with the Lark, Ying, Serafin, Amernet, and Fine Arts String Quartets and at Miami’s Mainly Mozart Festival, the Philippines Opusfest, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, Festival Miami, Long Island’s Beethoven Festival, and France’s La Gesse. Her concerto appearances have included engagements with the Houston Symphony, New World Symphony, Philippine Philharmonic, New Philharmonic, Redlands Symphony, Boca Raton Symphonia, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Frederick Symphony, Lynn Philharmonia, and orchestras in Latin America. She served as Artistic Ambassador for the United States, was awarded a major National Endowment for the Arts grant, and also received recognition and prizes from the Organization of American States, National Society of Arts & Letters, and International Concours de Fortepiano (Paris).

Rust serves as Artist Faculty-Piano/Professor and head of the piano department at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton FL, where she received the “Deanne and Gerald Gitner and Family Excellence in Teaching Award.” She has given master classes at Northwestern University, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, and throughout Asia and the Americas. Rust has been presented in performances and master classes at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, the Manila International Piano Masterclasses Festival, the University of Florida International Piano Festival, and the Fondation Bell’Arte International Certificate for Piano Artists program. She has served as a competition adjudicator for the New World Symphony, the Chautauqua and Brevard Festivals, and the Colburn School’s Music Academy.

Rust was born in Texas and is a Sioux descendant. She studied at the Peabody Conservatory, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin, and earned performer’s certificates in piano and German Lieder from the Mozarteum in Salzburg. A student of Ivan Davis, Artur Balsam, John Perry, and Phillip Evans, she received a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a doctorate from the University of Miami. Master class studies were with Gary Graffman, Leon Fleisher, Carlo Zecchi, and Erik Werba.