Dr. Rochelle Sennet (suh-NET) has established herself as a well-known performer, teacher, and scholar. Her recital programs showcase her versatility at the keyboard, with frequent performances of works by J.S. Bach and Black composers such as H. Leslie Adams, Jeffrey Mumford, James Lee III, and Pulitzer-Prize winning composer George Walker. She received the Bachelor of Music degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Master of Music degree from University of Michigan, Artist Diploma from Texas Christian University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of Illinois.  She was co-winner for the Krannert Center Debut Artist Competition, national finalist at the MTNA Steinway & Sons Young Artist Piano Competition, and a prize winner in numerous competitions such as the Kingsville International Piano Competition, San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club Piano Competition, and the US Open Music Piano Concerto Competition.  She is the inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the College of Fine and Applied Arts at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she also serves as Professor of Piano in the School of Music, and is a faculty affiliate in the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC).

Her latest 3-Disc recording, “Bach to Black: Suites for Piano, Volume III” was released on Albany Records in February 2024, and includes the complete French Suites and French Overture of J.S. Bach, and seven suites by Black composers: Margaret Bonds, Betty Jackson King, Nkeiru Okoye, Montague Ring, William Grant Still, James Lee III, and Adolphus Hailstork. She previously released “Bach to Black: Suites for Piano, Volume II” in October 2022, a 3-disc set, which includes the complete Partitas of J.S. Bach, and six additional suites by Black composers: George Walker, Florence Price, Joyce Solomon Moorman, Montague Ring, Harry Burleigh, and Ulysses Kay. Volume I of “Bach to Black,” also a 3-Disc recording, was released in 2021, and includes the complete English Suites of J.S. Bach, and six additional suites by five Black composers: S. Coleridge-Taylor, N. Dett, H. Adams, F. Tillis, and J. Mumford; she earned a Gold Medal from Global Music Awards for her album. Her previous solo recording, entitled “Alkebulan’s Son: The Solo Piano works of James Lee III,” was released in May 2014 on Albany Records, and received rave reviews in American Record Guide.  Her duo’s debut recording, “Duo MemDi: The Debut” was released in 2018 on Albany Records. In 2012, her recording of George Walker’s Piano Concerto was also released on the Albany Records label, and she was the first pianist to record this difficult work since Natalie Hinderas in 1976.  Robert Schulslaper of Fanfare Magazine described her performance of Walker’s concerto: “Rochelle Sennet plays the concerto…with supreme confidence.”  She is also featured on this recording, performing on Walker’s triple concerto, Da Camera.  George Walker himself praised her performance of his music.  She also recorded eighteenth-century composer Leopold Kozeluch’s second piano concerto and three harpsichord sonatas for four-hands with the Classical Chamber Players, which was released on the Mark Records label during the summer of 2013.  

Her recordings have regularly been featured on radio stations and programs nationwide and internationally such as BBC Radio, WQXR, WFMT, WILL, WXXI Classical, as well as “Sunday Baroque” and “Bach and Beyoncé with Maria Ellis.” Recent performances include solo appearances at Live from WFMT-Chicago, California State University at Northridge’s Symposium on the Piano Music of Black Composers, Four Seasons Arts in Oakland California, Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory, where she gave the international debut of James Lee’s Piano Sonata No. 1, Eastman School of Music in Rochester, Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  She performed Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto with the Blue Lake Festival Orchestra in Michigan, which was broadcast live on WBLV-Blue Lake Public Radio.  She also recently gave the world premiere of James Lee III’s Concerto for Piano and Winds with the Morgan State University Symphonic Band in Baltimore, Maryland.  She has also made guest appearances as a soloist with ensembles such as University Philharmonia Orchestra in Michigan, the Sewanee Festival Orchestra in Tennessee, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra.  She also performed Etude Fantasy by Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano at a University of Illinois concert, in which the composer was in attendance and praised her performance.  As an accomplished chamber music performer, she was a co-founder of Duo MemDi, a piano-violin duo established in 2010 with Russian international violin performer Igor Kalnin, on the principles of diversity and performing works by memory, a rarity in the field of chamber music.  Recent Duo MemDi performances have included appearances at the Tashkent State Conservatory, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie, Luther College, and numerous outreach events throughout the United States.  

As a committed scholar and educator, she has presented frequent guest lectures, is an advocate for outreach performances, and is in demand as an adjudicator at piano competitions. She has presented lecture recitals at the Music Teachers National Association Conference, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, American Musicological Society Conference, College Music Society National Conference, the College Music Society Great Lakes Regional Conference in Dayton, Ohio, and the Illinois State Music Teachers Conference.  Other appearances include solo recitals as well as being recently invited as masterclass clinician at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan in Tashkent, Roosevelt University in Chicago, Flint Institute of Music in Michigan, and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee.  As an adjudicator, she was invited to judge competitions such as the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, National Society of Arts and Letters Piano Competition, Memphis International Piano Competition, Sejong Music Society Piano Competition, Zelpha Wells Piano Competition in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Walgreens Concerto Competition in Highland Park, Illinois. She is also a 2023-2024 Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project, and she has published articles through media outlets including Newsweek, Inside Higher Ed, Visible Magazine, and The Fulcrum. Her op-ed, “Can They Play Bach,” was picked up by over 30 newspapers across the United States, with circulations totaling over 7 million readers.

Dr. Sennet is a Voting Member of The Recording Academy, a Yamaha Artist, and she is a Music Teachers National Association Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM).