GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Presented by the Library of Congress with The U.S. Air Force Band in Rhapsody in Blue at 100 – Led by Col. Don Schofield
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 U.S Air Force Band
Presented by the Library of Congress in
Rhapsody in Blue at 100
Conducted by Colonel Don Schofield
Monday, February 12, 2024 at 8pm
Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium
10 1st Street SE | Washington D.C.
Tickets: www.bit.ly/SimoneDinnersteinLibraryOfCongress212224
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity”
– The Washington Post
Washington DC – On February 12, 2024, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” will be the featured guest soloist with The United States Air Force Band in Rhapsody in Blue at 100 – a special concert commemorating the centennial anniversary of the iconic work. The performance will be held at the Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium (10 1st Street SE) and will be conducted by Colonel Don Schofield.
In honor of the occasion, the concert will feature a performance of the original 1924 jazz orchestra version of the beloved piece. Composed by George Gershwin and initially orchestrated by Ferde Grofé, the work’s premiere performance was given on February 12, 1924 with Gershwin also appearing as guest soloist with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, for which the piece was arranged. A new critical edition of that score was published by Ryan Bañagale and University of Michigan’s Gershwin Initiative.
The Library of Congress is home to the George and Ira Gershwin Collection, which contains music manuscripts, lyric sheets correspondence, photographs, programs and publicity materials, business papers, and scrapbooks that present nearly a complete record of the Gershwins’ lives and work.
Original manuscripts of this famed work of Americana drawn from the George and Ira Gershwin Collection and Ferde Grofé Collection will be on view at the Library of Congress. There will be a pre-concert lecture by Gershwin scholar Ryan Bañagale at 6:30pm in the Coolidge Auditorium. Registration for this free event will open on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 10am. The rest of the concert program will be announced at a later date.
About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice. The Washington Post has called her “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.”
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.
About The Library of Congress: The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
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 guest soloist with the U.S. Air Force Band, led by Colonel Don Schofield in Rhapsody in Blue at 100 –– a commemorative concert program which features a performance of the original version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, presented by the Library of Congress. The remainder of the program will be announced at a later date.
Short Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” (The Washington Post) is the guest soloist with the U.S. Air Force Band, led by Colonel Don Schofield, in a performance of the original version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, presented by the Library of Congress. Other works to be announced.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by the Library of Congress
Conducted by Colonel Don Schofield
What: A performance of the original version of Rhapsody in Blue, plus other works to be announced
When: Monday, February 12, 2024 at 8pm
Where: Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium (LJG45E), 10 1st Street SE, Washington, DC 20540
Tickets and information: www.bit.ly/SimoneDinnersteinLibraryOfCongress212224 (Registration opens Wednesday, January 17 at 10am ET)