March 23: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performs as Guest Soloist with the Erie Philharmonic in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 Conducted by Music Director Daniel Meyer
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performs as Guest Soloist with the Erie Philharmonic
Featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major
Conducted by Music Director Daniel Meyer
Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 8pm
Warner Theatre | 811 State Street | Erie, PA
Tickets & Information
“colorful and idiosyncratic”
– The New York Times
Erie, PA – On Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 8pm 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 Erie Philharmonic in a performance of Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major. The performance will be held at the Warner Theatre (811 State Street) and will be conducted by Music Director Daniel Meyer. A beloved guest artist of the Erie Philharmonic, Dinnerstein returns as part of a vivid concert program that also includes Modest Mussorgsky's famed work, Pictures at an Exhibition, as orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.
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 Brahms’ second piano concerto and performing alongside Daniel Meyer and the Erie Philharmonic:
“I am eagerly anticipating collaborating with Daniel Meyer and the Erie Philharmonic on this magnificent work. I have had wonderful experiences with them in the past and always enjoy visiting the community of Erie and playing in the historic Warner Theatre. In addition; I am looking forward to meeting their new piano!”
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 Erie Philharmonic: The mission of the Erie Philharmonic is to strengthen our community and region by providing high-quality live orchestra concerts and programs that enrich, educate, and entertain people of all ages. In existence since 1913, the Philharmonic is one of the oldest ensembles in the country and is consistently recognized on a national level as one of the top orchestras in our budget size. With a season that features 15 mainstage concerts, a free regional summer-concert tour, various chamber music performances, youth concerts and numerous outreach events, the orchestra reaches nearly 50,000 people annually. In the last seven seasons, the orchestra has become an unrivaled presence in the community, selling out concerts and presenting life-changing musical experiences that have garnered national attention from Good Morning America, the National Endowment for the Arts, Forbes Magazine and the Telly Awards.
In 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the orchestra broadcasted 20 free concerts on WQLN PBS. These free performances represented a positive and healing light for our region as Erie looked to weather the ongoing health crisis. In January 2022, the orchestra returned to a newly renovated Warner Theatre, and has since seen audience growth nearly unparalleled in the classical music world. The 2023-24 concert season marks the 111th season of the orchestra.
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 Erie Philharmonic, led by Music Director Daniel Meyer. Dinnerstein will perform Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2. in B-flat Major. The concert will also include a performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s iconic Pictures at an Exhibition, as orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” (The Washington Post) is the guest soloist with the Erie Philharmonic in a performance of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2, led by Music Director Daniel Meyer. The performance will also include Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Conducted by Music Director Daniel Meyer
Presented by the Erie Philharmonic
What: Music by Johannes Brahms and Modest Mussorgsky / Maurice Ravel
When: Saturday, March 23, 2024 at 8pm
Where: Warner Theatre, 811 State Street, Erie, PA, 16501
Tickets and information: www.eriephil.org/calendar/pictures