ABOUT

Edwin Penhorwood, a native of Toledo, Ohio is a graduate of the University of Toledo, (B.ED) and the University of Iowa, (MFA, DMA).  He is a composer, pianist, organist, and vocal coach.  He has accompanied singers and instrumentalists in North America and in Europe for many years and taught at the International School of Zurich, Switzerland, the Church Music Conservatory in Berlin, the University of Missouri and Indiana University.

Dr. Penhorwood’s songs have been broadcast by NPR, the Paris and Berlin radio networks and have been featured at Festival Aix-en-Provence, The Glimmerglass Opera, The Chautauqua Opera, the National NATS Convention, and Marilyn Horne’s 70^th Birthday Celebration.  Penhorwood’s compositions are published by Carl Fischer, Abingdon, Hinshaw Music, Fred Bock, and E.C. Schirmer.

E.C. Schirmer publishes Dr. Penhorwood’s comic opera Too Many Sopranos, commissioned by the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and premiered in June of 2000.  Too Many Sopranos, now in its fifth printing has been presented at the NATS Convention and The National Opera Association National Convention in New York City. The opera has received over 125 productions, most recently at The Baltimore Opera, Light Opera Oklahoma, and the Indiana University Opera Theatre.

Dr. Penhorwood has edited two volumes of Vincenzo Righini’s vocal works for Southern Music.  Many of these compositions received their American premières at the 2^nd International Congress of Voice Teachers held in Philadelphia.

Hinshaw Music, now Fred Bock, published and featured his composition, Psalm 145, for chamber orchestra, choir, soloists and organ, in their Celebration convention. 

In 1999, The Indianapolis Symphonic Chorus through the Lilly Foundation presented Mr. Penhorwood with a commission for a choral work, The Christmas Story.  A commission from Southern Mississippi University, An American Requiem, was also performed at Carnegie Hall, February, 2010.  Second Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis commissioned a suite of spirituals for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, Faith Hope Love and Christopher Newport University’s Music School commissioned a Suite of Stephen Foster Songs for soprano soloist and wind ensemble for their European Tour. Winston Choi premiered Dr. Penhorwood’s Variations for Piano at the summer festival of the Cincinnati Matinee Musicale with a repeat performance at the Edward Auer Piano Festival at Indiana University in 2017.

Now retired, Dr. Penhorwood joined the faculty of Indiana University in 1993.   He is married to soprano Costanza Cuccaro.