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. From 1975 to 1990 she was harpsichordist and fortepianist with the Ars Musica Baroque Orchestra, one of the first period instrument ensembles in North America. As a member of the Atlantis Trio, with violinist Jaap Schroeder and cellist Enid Sutherland, she has performed and recorded the complete chamber works of Schubert for piano and strings, as well as the complete Piano Trios and the Sextet of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, the Schumann Quintet, and trios of Robert and Clara Schumann and Sigismond Thalberg. She has also recorded Schubert's two major Lieder cycles, Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise with baritone Max van Egmond. Her solo and chamber music recordings have appeared on Timegate, Titanic, Wild Boar, Loft, and Musica Omnia labels.
In addition to teaching at the University of Michigan, Ms. Crawford served for twenty-five years on the artist faculty of the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. She has been involved as Artistic Director and performer in several important international conferences: Händel's Messiah: History & Performance (1980 Ann Arbor) Michigan MozartFest (1989, Ann Arbor); Schubert's Piano Music (1995, Washington D. C.); and Beyond Notation: The Performance and Pedagogy of Improvisation in Mozart's Music(2002, Ann Arbor). Crawford's performance degrees came from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan, with additional studies in Salzburg and Rome. Her teachers have included Cécile Genhart, Rosina Lhevinne, Guido Agosti, Kurt Neumüller and Gyorgy Sandor.
An avid collector of historical keyboards, Ms. Crawford owns both originals and reproductions of 18th- and 19th-century pianos and harpsichords.