July 21: Pianists Simone Dinnerstein & Awadagin Pratt Perform as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival
Pianists Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt
Performing as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival
A Broyhill Classic Concert Series Event
Presented by Appalachian State University
Office of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources
Sunday, July 21, 2024 at 2:00pm
Rosen Concert Hall, Broyhill Music Center
813 Rivers St. | Boone, NC
Boone, NC – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic,” along with GRAMMY-winning pianist Awadagin Pratt, will be presented in concert by the Appalachian State University Office of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources, as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Broyhill Classic Concert Series. The concert will take place in Rosen Concert Hall, Broyhill Music Center, (813 Rivers St.) on Sunday, July 21, 2024 at 2:00pm. Supporting sponsorship is provided by the Broyhill Family Foundation and Campus Store.
American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice and remains steadfast in her commitment to sharing classical music with everyone. Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts.
Beyond their mutual passion for and prestige with the piano, Dinnerstein and Pratt share a long time friendship and appreciation for collaborative performance. The two musicians have performed together many times over their respective careers, cultivating a deep respect and admiration for one another’s artistry. For this performance, Dinnerstein and Pratt will collaborate on a program featuring several selections for piano: two pianos, piano with four hands, and solo selections for piano, including: Castillo Interior by Pēteris Vasks, performed by Pratt; Philip Glass’s Etude No. 6, performed by Dinnerstein; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 performed by Dinnerstein and Pratt; and Ludwig van Beethoven’s stately Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68 “Pastoral” –– as arranged by Selmar Bagge –– performed by Dinnerstein and Pratt together at a single piano.
Of performing this program with Awadagin Pratt, Dinnerstein says:
“There is an intimacy to the two-piano repertoire that makes a concert hall feel like a living room. This repertoire was meant to be played at home. Historically, symphonies were arranged for two-piano as a way of becoming familiar to music lovers long before the days of recording, and when live orchestral performances were few and far between. Orchestral transcriptions require so much imagination, and also reveal elements of the counterpoint that may be different than what one’s impressions are from hearing the fully orchestrated version. I’m anticipating that this concert will have a friendly and more informal feel to it as a result of this quality in the music itself.”
More about Simone Dinnerstein: In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.
For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
About Awadagin Pratt: Among his generation of concert artists, pianist Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely involving performances in recital and with symphony orchestras. Born in Pittsburgh, Awadagin Pratt began studying piano at the age of six. Three years later, having moved to Normal, Illinois with his family, he also began studying violin. At the age of 16 he entered the University of Illinois where he studied piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he became the first student in the school’s history to receive diplomas in three performance areas – piano, violin and conducting. In recognition of this achievement and for his work in the field of classical music, Mr. Pratt received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins as well as an honorary doctorate from Illinois Wesleyan University after delivering the commencement address in 2012.
For more information, please visit: www.awadagin.com
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” and GRAMMY-winning pianist Awadagin Pratt, are presented in concert by the Appalachian State University Office of Arts & Cultural Programs as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival - A Broyhill Classic Concert Series Event. Dinnerstein and Pratt will perform a program featuring music written for two pianos, piano with four hands, as well as solo selections. The concert will include music by Pēteris Vasks, Philip Glass, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven/Selmar Bagge.
Concert details:
Who: Pianists Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt
Presented by Appalachian State University’s Office of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Broyhill Classic Concert Series
What: Music by Pēteris Vasks, Philip Glass, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Sunday, July 21, 2024 at 2:00pm
Where: Rosen Concert Hall, Broyhill Music Center, 813 Rivers St., Boone, NC 28608
Tickets and information: www.appsummer.org/event/simone-dinnerstein-and-awadagin-pratt-piano