April 19: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Guest Soloist with Berkshire Symphony
Photo by Tanya Braganti available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Performs as Guest Soloist with the Berkshire Symphony
Featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major
Conducted by Music Director Ronald Feldman
Friday, April 19, 2024 at 7:30pm
Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall | 54 Chapin Hall Drive | Williamstown, MA
Free and Open to the Public - More Information
“colorful and idiosyncratic”
– The New York Times
Williamstown, MA – On Friday, April 19, 2024, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” will be the featured guest soloist with the Berkshire Symphony in a performance of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major. The concert will be held at Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall (54 Chapin Hall Drive) and will be conducted by Ronald Feldman –– his final performance as the Berkshire Symphony’s Music Director. A beloved guest artist of the Berkshire Symphony, Dinnerstein returns for the first time since 2015, to perform as part of a concert program that also features Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major. There will be a pre-concert talk with Ronald Feldman at 6:45pm in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public. There are no reservations or ticketing.
The Washington Post has called Simone Dinnerstein “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She 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.”
While Dinnerstein has come to be recognized and celebrated for her appreciation of music by J.S. Bach, she has also brought bold and expressive artistry to the work of Brahms in performances for over 10 years –– including the other of Brahms’ two piano concertos: No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15. Brahms’ second piano concerto is a newer addition to her repertoire –– one which Dinnerstein has been excited to perform this season.
She says of performing Brahms’s second piano and getting to collaborate with Ronald Feldman and the Berkshire Symphony on an all-Brahms program:
“I am honored to join Ronny Feldman for his final concert as the beloved music director of the Berkshire Symphony. We last collaborated on Brahms’s First Piano Concerto for the reopening of the beautiful Chapin Hall and it will be a joy to collaborate on his Second piano concerto for this special event. Since he is also a fine cellist, I know that Ronny will bring a special sensitivity to this work, which so prominently features the cello in the gorgeous third movement. And it just so happens that Julian Müller will be playing principal cello in this performance. I’ve known Julian since he was a student of mine at the Mannes School of Music, and he is a member of my string ensemble, Baroklyn. It will be an added joy to play this work with him.”
About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone 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. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.
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 the Berkshire Symphony: The Berkshire Symphony is a 75-member symphonic orchestra comprising, in roughly equal proportions, Williams College music students, Williams music faculty members, and area professionals. The Symphony performs music by a range of composers, including Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Wagner. The Berkshire Symphony was founded in 1946 and is directed by Ronald Feldman.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is the featured soloist with the Berkshire Symphony, conducted by Music Director Ronald Feldman. Dinnerstein will perform Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2. in B-flat Major. The concert will also include a performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major. A pre-concert talk will be held at 6:45pm in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public. There are no reservations or ticketing.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” (The Washington Post) is the guest soloist with the Berkshire Symphony in Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2, led by Music Director Ronald Feldman. The concert will also include Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. There will be a pre-concert talk at 6:45pm in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Conducted by Music Director Ronald Feldman
Presented by the Berkshire Symphony
What: Music by Johannes Brahms
When: Friday, April 19, 2024 at 7:30pm, Pre-Concert Talk at 6:45pm
Where: Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, 54 Chapin Hall Drive, Williamstown, MA 01267
Tickets and information: www.events.williams.edu/event/berkshire-symphony-62