May 17, 19: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 – Conducted by Music Director Dirk Brossé
GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
in W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major
Conducted by Music Director Dirk Brossé
Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:30pm
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 2:30pm
Perelman Theater, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
300 S Broad St. | Philadelphia, PA
“an intrepid artistic personality” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Philadelphia, PA – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” will be the featured soloist in two concerts with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 2:30pm. Dinnerstein will perform W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major on a program led by Music Director Dirk Brossé that also includes George Walker‘s Lyric for Strings, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major. The concert will be held in Perelman Theater of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (300 S Broad St.)
A familiar and cherished guest artist of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Dinnerstein returns to perform with the chamber ensemble following a 2021 concert, which featured the work of J.S. Bach and Philip Glass. Of that concert, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that Dinnerstein “found a great deal of joy and liberation,” throughout the performance.
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.”
As a musician who embraces collaboration and inclusiveness with her artistry and performances, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major holds particular significance for Dinnerstein. Not only is the piece included on her 2017 album, Mozart in Havana, but the concerto served as a point of artistic connection between Dinnerstein and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, with which she performed the piece while visiting Cuba in 2015, at the invitation of her teacher and esteemed pianist, Solomon Mikowsky. Gramophone describes Dinnerstein’s approach to piece, which she also recorded with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra for her album, as having a “wide yet subtle palette of tonal shadings and articulations,” while also applauding her “crisp fingerwork and strategic left-hand accents” in the concerto’s finale.
Dinnerstein says of reuniting with Dirk Brossé and performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia:
“It is an honor to be performing with Maestro Dirk Brossé for his final two concerts as Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. His sensitivity as a conductor makes him a joy to work with, and I am anticipating our Mozart collaboration with great pleasure.”
More about Simone Dinnerstein: 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 Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia: 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.
The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, a founding resident company of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, is a 33-member professional ensemble led by Music Director, Sir Dirk Brossé. Established in 1964 by Marc Mostovoy, and originally named Concerto Soloists, the orchestra has a well-established reputation for distinguished performances of repertoire spanning the Baroque period through the 21st century.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “an intrepid artistic personality,” is presented as a guest soloist in two concerts with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, performing W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major –– a lively work featured on Dinnerstein’s 2017 Sony Classical album, Mozart in Havana. Conducted by Music Director Dirk Brossé, the concert program will also include George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an intrepid artistic personality” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) will be a guest soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in two performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major. Led by Music Director Dirk Brossé, the program will also include Walker’s Lyric and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Conducted by Music Director Dirk Brossé
Presented by The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
What: Music by W.A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and George Walker
When: Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 2:30pm
Where: Perelman Theater, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 S Broad St Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tickets and information: www.chamberorchestra.org/project/mozart-dinnerstein-piano-2024
May 7: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by The Gilmore International Piano Festival Performing Music from her Album Undersong
GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by The Gilmore International Piano Festival
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented By The Gilmore International Piano Festival
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie
From her Album Undersong
Tuesday, May 7, 2023 at 7:30pm
Stetson Chapel | 1200 Academy St. | Kalamazoo, MI
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity”
– The Washington Post
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Kalamazoo, MI – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as an “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert Tuesday, May 7, 2024 by The Gilmore International Piano Festival (1200 Academy St).
Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album Undersong –– the final installment in a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, which also includes A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020) and Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021). The latter surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The concert program will include: Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses, and Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Dinnerstein explains of Undersong’s title: “Undersong is an archaic term for a song with a refrain, and to me it also suggests a hidden text. Glass, Schumann, Couperin and Satie all seem to be attempting to find what they want to say through repetition, as though their constant change and recycling will focus the ear and the mind. This time has been one of reflection and reconsidering for many of us, and this music speaks to the process of revisiting and searching for the meaning beneath the notes, of the undersong.”
Reflecting on Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18, Dinnerstein explains that it’s “a very beautiful, poetic piece of music but it ends with a separate type of epilogue that's something different from the piece and modern in a way. There's a rest before you play it and the rest serves as a bridge to Philip Glass’s Mad Rush. It's unclear to the listener whether it's Schumann or Glass. I really like that blurring of the composer's languages with each other."
Dinnerstein offers this connective observation between Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16 and Schumann’s, Arabesque “The Arabesque has some quick changes in mood and the most breathtaking coda at the end that completely takes it someplace else, written in Schumann’s music language but sounding absolutely contemporary. In comparison, Kreisleriana changes on a dime. Suddenly, you’ll be in a completely different headspace. I think that’s as much about Schumann himself, as about his love for Clara.” Sequenza21 describes Dinnerstein’s approach to Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses as “sonorous [and] eschewing ornamentation in favor of unadorned, shapely melodies.”
With its distinctly repetitious compositional structure, Philip Glass’s Mad Rush, a piece originally composed for organ at New York City’s St. John the Divine, underscores the collectively seamless nature of this program’s repertoire. The New Criterion describes Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece as “transcendent – the picture of introspection interrupted by unexpected vision.”
Of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3, Dinnerstein says, “Erik Satie published three Gymnopédie and three Gnossienne together, though he eventually wrote more Gnossienne, a fantastical term that he came up with. The markings in the score for Gnossienne No. 3 are bizarre: “Plan carefully”; “Provide yourself with clear sightedness”; “Alone for a moment”; “So as to get a hollow”; “Quite lost”; “Carry this further”; “Open your mind”. These are written right over the notes. The commentary is dada-esque.”
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 Gilmore: The Gilmore was created in 1989 to honor the legacy of Kalamazoo businessman, pianist, and philanthropist Irving S. Gilmore, and is known for its biennial piano festival, first held in 1991. Since then, each of sixteen festivals has been enjoyed by tens of thousands of visitors to Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. The next Irving S. Gilmore International Piano Festival is planned for April 24-May 12, 2024. The organization names a career-making Gilmore Artist Award, presented every four years and determined through a non-competitive process. Nine Gilmore Artists have been named, the most recent being 2024 Gilmore Artist Alexandre Kantarow. In 2022, a major gift launched the creation of the Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Awards, which will be announced for the 2026 Festival. The Gilmore has also commissioned 42 new works for piano since its inception, with three more premiering at the 2024 Festival. For more information, visit thegilmore.org.
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 presented in concert by The Gilmore International Piano Festival. Dinnerstein will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music release, Undersong, including Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described as an artist of “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” (The Washington Post) is presented in concert by The Gilmore International Piano Festival, performing selections by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie from her 2022 album Undersong.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by The Gilmore International Piano Festival
What: Music by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie
When: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Stetson Chapel, 1200 Academy St, Kalamazoo, MI 49006
Tickets and information: www.thegilmore.org/event/simone-dinnerstein/
April 5: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented with Baroklyn by Gogue Performing Arts Center – Featuring the Music of J.S. Bach
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented with Baroklyn by Gogue Performing Arts Center
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented with Baroklyn by Gogue Performing Arts Center
Featuring the Music of J.S. Bach
Third Performance as part of the Gogue Center’s 2023–24 Orchestra & Chamber Music Series
Friday, April 5, 2024, 7pm
Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center
910 South College Street | Auburn, AL
“colorful and idiosyncratic” – The New York Times
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Auburn, AL – On Friday, April 5, 2024, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein returns to the Woltosz Theatre at the Gogue Performing Arts Center (910 South College Street) for her third performance as part of the Gogue Center’s 2023–24 Orchestra & Chamber Music Series. Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform together with her ensemble Baroklyn, in a concert the Baroque-era music of J.S. Bach. The program will include Sonata in D Major for Cello and Piano; Keyboard Concerto in D Minor; Sonata in C Minor for Violin and Piano; and Keyboard Concerto in E Major. The evening’s program is subject to change.
Over the course of more than a decade, Dinnerstein has steadily gained recognition as both a skilled and imaginative performer of Bach’s music. Public appreciation for her performances of his music began with the exuberant and wide-reaching reception of her 2007 debut album featuring J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The recording reflected an aesthetic that was both profoundly idiosyncratic and deeply rooted in the score. Dinnerstein is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
Since then, Dinnerstein has remained passionately dedicated to continually honing her artistry and musicianship across the extensive breadth of J.S. Bach’s body of work for solo piano and collaborative performances. The Washington Post has called Simone Dinnerstein “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” Baroklyn merges Dinnerstein’s appreciation for musical collaboration with musical leadership, as Dinnerstein both founded the ensemble and conducts the group from the piano.
Of bringing a collaborative performance with Baroklyn to the Gogue Performing Arts Center and illuminating the iconic music of J.S. Bach:
”I am so excited to bring the principal members of Baroklyn to Auburn and the Gogue Performing Arts Center. Every one of these musicians is a superlative musician, and they bring individual personality and life to every voice of Bach’s intricate counterpoint.”
Simone Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and the 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, the Seoul Arts Center and the Sydney Opera House.
She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard classical charts, with repertoire ranging from Couperin to Glass. From 2020 to 2022, she released a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic. A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020), featuring the music of Philip Glass and Schubert, was described by NPR as, “music that speaks to a sense of the world slowing down,” and by The New Yorker as, “a reminder that quiet can contain multitudes.” Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021), surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The final installment in the trilogy, Undersong, was released in January 2022 on Orange Mountain Music.
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. 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.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein –– who has gained recognition as both a proficient and imaginative performer of Bach’s music and is described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” –– is presented in concert with Baroklyn. Dinnerstein is the Artistic Director of the ensemble, which she also conducts from the piano. The collaborative performance will feature an array of music by Baroque era icon, J.S. Bach, including two concertos and two sonatas.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (The New York Times) is presented in a performance with Baroklyn, the chamber ensemble Dinnerstein conducts from the piano and of which she is the Artistic Director. Together they will perform the music of J.S. Bach.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn
Presented by the Gogue Performing Arts Center
What: Music by J.S. Bach
When:Friday, April 5, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center, 910 South College Street, Auburn, AL
Tickets and information: www.goguecenter.auburn.edu/simone-dinnerstein-with-baroklyn/
April 19: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Guest Soloist with Berkshire Symphony
GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performs as 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
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
GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performs as Guest Soloist with the Erie Philharmonic
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
March 28, April 11 & 25: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Curates Bach Series at Miller Theatre at Columbia University
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Curates Bach Series at Miller Theatre at Columbia University
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Curates Bach Series at Miller Theatre at Columbia University
Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 8pm – Bach Collection
with Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, Oboist Peggy Pearson, Violinist Rebecca Fischer, and Baroklyn
Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 8pm – Bach Suites and Concertos
with Flutists Christina Jennings and Ilaria Loisa Hawley,
Plus Baroklyn
Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 8pm – Bach Sinfonias
Simone Dinnerstein, Solo Piano
Miller Theatre at Columbia University
2960 Broadway (at 116th Street) | New York, NY
Tickets and Information
“an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation”
– The New York Times
New York, NY – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein will be presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University (2960 Broadway, at 116th Street) in three concerts on Thursday, March 28, Thursday, April 11, and Thursday, April 25, 2024 as part of Miller Theatre’s 2023-2024 Bach Series, which was curated by Dinnerstein.
A champion of unifying people through music and sharing its beauty with everyone, the Brooklyn-based pianist has collaborated with Miller Theatre to present and perform in another concert series highlighting the awe-inspiring complexities and collaborative joys of J.S. Bach’s work, in addition to music by several other compelling composers.
Dinnerstein shares these thoughts ahead the series opening on March 28:
“For these concerts, I commissioned the fabulous composer, Philip Lasser, to create keyboard realizations for the Cantata 170, Brandenburg 6, and the Orchestral Suite No 3. Philip’s very special sensitivity to Bach’s writing is melded with his own distinctive musical voice and will bring a new flavor to these familiar works. I am particularly excited about his transformation of the Air on the G String and can’t wait to premiere this on April 11!”
On March 28, Dinnerstein opens the series with Bach Collection –– a program highlighting an elegant variety of Bach’s music in several musical forms –– sonata, concerto, and cantata –– performed together with a stellar group of guest artists.
The second performance on April 11, Bach Suites and Concertos, highlights a pair of Bach’s orchestral suites and two of his concertos –– one for keyboard and one of his famed Brandenburg concertos –– performed in collaboration with Dinnerstein’s ensemble Baroklyn, and two guest flutists.
Lastly, on April 25, Dinnerstein closes the series with Bach Sinfonias –– a program for solo piano, which juxtaposes Bach’s Sinfonias with three other musically diverse selections, spanning more than 250 years.
Over the course of more than a decade, Dinnerstein has steadily gained recognition as both a skilled and imaginative performer of Bach’s music. Public appreciation for her performances of his music began with the exuberant and wide-reaching reception of her 2007 debut album featuring J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Since then, Miller Theatre has enthusiastically embraced several opportunities to present Bach-centric concert programs curated and performed by Dinnerstein.
The opening concert on March 28 underscores the creative versatility of J.S. Bach as a composer. The program is anchored by two Bach masterpieces—his Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, where violas get their chance to shine, and his breathtaking sacred cantata Vergnügte Ruh', beliebte Seelenlust (Delightful repose, cherished pleasure of the soul). Featured with Dinnerstein are mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, oboist Peggy Pearson, violinist Rebecca Fischer, and Dinnerstein’s ensemble, Baroklyn, of which she is the Artistic Director and which Dinnerstein conducts from the piano.
Dinnerstein says of the collaborations for the first performance in this year’s series:
“It is also my special pleasure to welcome back Peggy Pearson on March 28. I first fell in love with Peggy’s fabulous oboe d’amore playing on the legendary recording she made with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Emmanuel Music of Bach’s Ich Habe Genug. In this same concert, we will welcome concertmaster Rebecca Fischer’s daughter, Oriana Hawley, to join Baroklyn’s violists in our performance of Brandenburg 6. Oriana is a dual degree undergraduate student at Columbia University and the Juilliard School.”
On April 11, the Bach Series continues with a performance centered around two pairs of pieces by Bach: his orchestral suites and concertos. Dinnerstein’s artistry at the piano shines in Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 6 in F major (1738), while Baroklyn and flutists Christina Jennings and Ilaria Loisa Hawley add a whirlwind of grandiosity and musical color to performances of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor (c. 1738-39); Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major (c. 1731), and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major (c. 1720-21).
Then on April 25, Miller Theatre will present the finale of the Bach Series with a performance featuring a thrilling program of solo works for piano that display an assortment of moods and musical forms. Rooted in the Baroque era with J.S. Bach’s technical collection of 15 Sinfonias (1720-23), Dinnerstein also brings her highly skilled and thoughtful performance style to Philip Lasser’s 12 Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach (2002), Keith Jarrett’s Encore From Tokyo (1978) and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Gavotte et 6 Doubles (c. 1729-30).
Through every concert, Dinnerstein strives to inspire enthusiasm and curiosity around Bach’s music. She showcases the beauty of his work, in modern interpretations for today’s listeners. “I hope that hearing these myriad works in one program will bring new shades of meaning to the listeners as well as the performers,” she says.
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.
The Eye Is the First Circle is one of the projects Dinnerstein has created in recent years that express her broad musical interests. In addition, 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 Miller Theatre: Miller Theatre at Columbia University is the leading presenter of new music in New York City and a vital force for innovative programming. In partnership with Columbia University School of the Arts, Miller is dedicated to producing and presenting unique events, with a focus on contemporary and early music, jazz, opera, and multimedia performances. Founded in 1988, Miller Theatre has helped launch the careers of myriad composers and ensembles over the years, serving as an incubator for emerging artists and a champion of those not yet well known in the United States. A four-time recipient of the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming, Miller Theatre continues to meet the high expectations set forth by its founders—to present innovative programs, support the development of new work, and connect creative artists with adventurous audiences.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” is presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University in three performances over March and April, as part of Miller Theatre’s 2023-2024 Bach Concert Series. The performances were each curated by Dinnerstein herself and features several guest artists, including Baroklyn, the ensemble Dinnerstein founded and which she conducts from the piano.
Short description: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” (The New York Times) is presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University in three performances as part of Miller Theatre’s 2023-2024 Bach Concert Series, which was curated by Dinnerstein herself.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, Oboist Peggy Pearson, Violinist Rebecca Fischer, Flutists Christina Jennings and Ilaria Loisa Hawley, and Baroklyn
Presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University
What: Three performances as part of Miller Theater’s 2023-2024 Bach Concert Series
When: March 28, April 11, and April 25, 2024 - all at 8pm
Where: Miller Theatre at Columbia University 2960 Broadway (at 116th Street), New York, NY 10003
Tickets and information: www.millertheatre.com/season-subscriptions/bach#subscription
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
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
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)
Jan. 26: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein in The Eye is The First Circle Presented by the Gogue Performing Arts Center
Simone Dinnerstein in The Eye is The First Circle Presented by the Gogue Performing Arts Center
Second of Three Performances at the Gogue Center this Season
Photo by Maria Baranova available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Simone Dinnerstein in The Eye is The First Circle
Presented by the Gogue Performing Arts Center
Second of Three Performances at the Gogue Center this Season
Friday, January 26, 2024 at 7pm
Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center
910 South College Street | Auburn, AL
Tickets & Information
Excerpts from The Eye is the First Circle: Watch Now
Featured on NPR’s All Things Considered: Listen Now
Kansas City, MO – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” is presented by the Gogue Performing Arts Center in the multimedia production that she performs, conceived, and directs – The Eye is the First Circle – on January 26, 2024 at the Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center (910 South College Street). This is the second of Dinnerstein’s three performances at the Gogue Center this season. Her final performance, with her ensemble Baroklyn, will be on April 5, 2024.
With The Eye Is the First Circle, which was premiered at Montclair State University in October 2021, Simone Dinnerstein ventures into bold interdisciplinary artistic territory in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett. Conceived and directed by Dinnerstein, this dynamic production deconstructs and collages elements from two iconic works of art – her father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2 (Concord).
The Fulbright Triptych places a family portrait (including an infant Simone) within the tradition of Medieval altar paintings, against a wall teeming with art historical references, and the Concord Sonata expresses the imaginative and natural world of the Transcendentalists through an ecstatic and fractured musical lens. Olinder pulls visuals including animated elements of the painting and real-time video to all points of the stage, and Scandrett’s lighting gives them breathtaking theatricality.
Dinnerstein’s searching performance sits within this disorientingly immersive visual space. The piece asks: How do our origin stories mold us? How can a sense of self come from the musical and visual fragments we remember from childhood? The Eye Is the First Circle shows us what it is to draw a new circle around the one we stand in, at the edge of what we can see.
Dinnerstein says, “The Eye is the First Circle is a very personal piece that, at its core, explores how my family’s world shaped my relationship to art. I devised it using my father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. My intellectual, emotional and artistic response to each work, and to the connections I saw between them, is what formed the larger circle I drew. . . While creating this production, I discovered that I had an aptitude for visual composition and for directing. It was as if I discovered a sixth sense that I had never used before, and I felt the joy of generating an artistic experience that expanded beyond music, the area where I am most used to expressing myself. When I began, I did not know what the end point would be. As Emerson wrote, ‘The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle.’”
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.
The Eye Is the First Circle is one of the projects Dinnerstein has created in recent years that express her broad musical interests. In addition, 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 Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented by the Gogue Performing Arts Center in The Eye is the First Circle. A multimedia production conceived, directed, and performed by Dinnerstein in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett, this production highlights elements from two iconic works of art: Dinnerstein’s father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. Dinnerstein describes the production as “a very personal piece that, at its core, explores how my family’s world shaped my relationship to art.”
Short Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who is described as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” (The Washington Post) is presented by the Gogue Performing Arts Center in her multimedia production The Eye is the First Circle, in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by Gogue Performing Arts Center
What: A performance of multimedia production, The Eye is the First Circle
When: Friday, January 26, 2024 at 7:00pm
Where: Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center, 910 South College Street, Auburn, AL
Tickets and information: www.goguecenter.auburn.edu/simone-dinnerstein-the-eye-is-the-first-circle
Feb. 3: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein in The Eye is The First Circle Makes her Harriman-Jewell Series Debut
Simone Dinnerstein in The Eye is The First Circle Makes her Harriman-Jewell Series Debut
Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 7 pm, Folly Theater | 300 West 12th Street | Kansas City, MO
Photo by Maria Baranova available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Simone Dinnerstein in The Eye is The First Circle
Makes her Harriman-Jewell Series Debut
Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 7 pm
Folly Theater | 300 West 12th Street | Kansas City, MO
Tickets & Information
Excerpts from The Eye is the First Circle: Watch Now
Featured on NPR’s All Things Considered: Listen Now
Kansas City, MO – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” is presented by the Harriman-Jewell Series in the multimedia production that she performs, conceived, and directs – The Eye is the First Circle – on February 3, 2024 at the Folly Theater (300 West 12th Street). This performance of The Eye is the First Circle will mark Dinnerstein’s Harriman-Jewell Series debut.
With The Eye Is the First Circle, which was premiered at Montclair State University in October 2021, Simone Dinnerstein ventures into bold interdisciplinary artistic territory in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett. Conceived and directed by Dinnerstein, this dynamic production deconstructs and collages elements from two iconic works of art – her father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2 (Concord).
The Fulbright Triptych places a family portrait (including an infant Simone) within the tradition of Medieval altar paintings, against a wall teeming with art historical references, and the Concord Sonata expresses the imaginative and natural world of the Transcendentalists through an ecstatic and fractured musical lens. Olinder pulls visuals including animated elements of the painting and real-time video to all points of the stage, and Scandrett’s lighting gives them breathtaking theatricality.
Dinnerstein’s searching performance sits within this disorientingly immersive visual space. The piece asks: How do our origin stories mold us? How can a sense of self come from the musical and visual fragments we remember from childhood? The Eye Is the First Circle shows us what it is to draw a new circle around the one we stand in, at the edge of what we can see.
Dinnerstein says, “The Eye is the First Circle is a very personal piece that, at its core, explores how my family’s world shaped my relationship to art. I devised it using my father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. My intellectual, emotional and artistic response to each work, and to the connections I saw between them, is what formed the larger circle I drew. . . While creating this production, I discovered that I had an aptitude for visual composition and for directing. It was as if I discovered a sixth sense that I had never used before, and I felt the joy of generating an artistic experience that expanded beyond music, the area where I am most used to expressing myself. When I began, I did not know what the end point would be. As Emerson wrote, ‘The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle.’”
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.
The Eye Is the First Circle is one of the projects Dinnerstein has created in recent years that express her broad musical interests. In addition, 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 Harriman-Jewell Series: More than 1,000 performances have come to Kansas City by way of the Harriman-Jewell Series, including 25 American recital debuts by prominent artists. With the addition of our free Educational Events that allow interaction with musicians and dancers, and our free Discovery Concerts that eliminate the barrier of cost, the Harriman-Jewell Series offers even more life-enriching opportunities for our community's youth and lifelong learners. Since the inception of the Harriman-Jewell Series, we have sought to bring the best of the performing arts to Kansas City, and to bring them to local audiences first. We continue to seek new voices and emerging artists alongside artists and ensembles who are leaders in their craft. Artistic programming follows our core tenets - Quality, Variety, Diversity, and Discovery.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented by the Harriman-Jewell Series in The Eye is the First Circle. A multimedia production conceived, directed, and performed by Dinnerstein in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett, this production highlights elements from two iconic works of art: Dinnerstein’s father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. Dinnerstein describes the production as “a very personal piece that, at its core, explores how my family’s world shaped my relationship to art.”
Short Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who is described as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” (The Washington Post) is presented by the Harriman-Jewell Series in her multimedia production The Eye is the First Circle, in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by Harriman-Jewell Series
What: A performance of multimedia production, The Eye is the First Circle
When: Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, Kansas City, MO, 64105
Tickets and information: www.hjseries.org/events/2324simone-dinnerstein
Jan. 12-13: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Performing Concertos of J.S. Bach and Philip Glass Conducted by Michael Butterman
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as Soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra
In the Piano Concertos of J.S. Bach and Philip Glass Conducted by Michael Butterman
Friday, January 12, 2024 at 7:30pm, Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 2:30pm, Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 7:30pm
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as Soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra
In the Piano Concertos of J.S. Bach and Philip Glass
Conducted by Michael Butterman
Friday, January 12, 2024 at 7:30pm
Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 2:30pm
Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 7:30pm
Gardner Theatre in Lancaster Country Day School
725 Hamilton Rd. | Lancaster, PA
Tickets: www.lancastersymphony.org/concert-calendar/bach-and-glass
“an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation”
– The New York Times
www.simonedinnerstein.com | www.brooklynorchestra.org
Lancaster, PA – 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 Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in three performances on Friday, January 12 at 7:30pm, Saturday, January 13, at 2:30pm, and Saturday January 13 at 7:30pm. All three concerts will be held at Gardner Theatre in Lancaster Country Day School (725 Hamilton Rd.).
Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone and known for her adventurous artistic instincts, will perform two piano concertos as part of this program. Dinnerstein’s selections will reflect not only a notable contrast in historical placement but will nod to two very different composers –– J.S. Bach and Philip Glass –– Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord No 2 in E major, BWV 1053 and Philip Glass’s seldom performed “Tirol” Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra. Additionally, the program will also include Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night (version 1943). The performance will be conducted by Michael Butterman and a free, 25-minute, pre-concert talk will be held one hour before each performance.
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. Recognized and celebrated for her appreciation of J.S. Bach’s work, she is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” Much further down the timeline of history from Bach, the music of Philip Glass is of equal intrigue and passion to Dinnerstein –– earning praise from critics and even Glass himself, who has written music for specifically for her. The Philadelphia Inquirer has said of Dinnerstein’s live performance of Bach and Glass: “Bach and Glass are about patterns and formal structure. Within the rigor, though, Simone Dinnerstein found a great deal of joy and liberation.” Of her approach to Glass’s work, EarRelevent writes that Dinnerstein has “a great affinity for the composer’s music.”
On reuniting with conductor Michael Butterman and performing this engaging, two concerto program with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra for her first concerts of 2024, Dinnerstein says:
It is always a joy to collaborate with my dear friend, Michael Butterman. Michael has the most natural and fluid approach to interpretation, both of which lend themselves particularly well to the music of Bach and Glass. And this will be my first time performing with the musicians of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, so I am looking forward to meeting them!
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 Lancaster Symphony Orchestra: The LSO is a non-profit organization governed by a board of community volunteers and managed by a professional staff. The LSO gratefully acknowledges support from Godfrey, Barley Snyder, Willow Valley, Hershey, Ephrata National Bank, Tiger’s Eye, the Holiday Inn Lancaster, and UPMC, along with donations from hundreds of corporate and private benefactors which underwrite the Symphony’s invaluable contribution to the quality of life in South-Central Pennsylvania. To learn more about the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, please visit www.lancastersymphony.org.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” is presented as the featured guest soloist with The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in a performance led by Michael Butterman. Dinnerstein, who is known for her appreciation of and skill with the music of both Bach and Philip Glass, will perform two concertos as part of the evening’s program: Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord No 2 in E major, BWV 1053 and Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra. Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night (version 1943) will also be included in the performance.
Short Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” (The New York Times) is presented as the featured soloist in concert with The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra led by Michael Butterman, in a concert that will feature Dinnerstein performing Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord No 2 in E major, BWV 1053 and Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto No. 1. The performance will also include Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night (version 1943).
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Michael Butterman
What: Music by J.S. Bach, Schoenberg, and Philip Glass
When: Friday, January 12 at 7:30pm and January 13, 2024 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm.
Where: Gardner Theatre in Lancaster Country Day School, 725 Hamilton Rd., Lancaster, PA 17603
Tickets and information: www.lancastersymphony.org/concert-calendar/bach-and-glass
Nov 27: Simone Dinnerstein performs Philip Glass's Tirol Concerto with Brooklyn Orchestra at Roulette; plus NY Premiere of Glass's Symphony No. 14
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as soloist in Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Brooklyn Orchestra
Concert features the New York Premiere of Glass’s Symphony No. 14 Conducted by Olivier Glissant
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as soloist in
Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Brooklyn Orchestra
Concert features the New York Premiere of Glass’s Symphony No. 14
Conducted by Olivier Glissant
Monday, November 27, 2023 at 7:30pm
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Avenue | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets & Information
www.simonedinnerstein.com | www.brooklynorchestra.org
New York, NY – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who is described by The Washington Post as, “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” will be the featured soloist in Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto (Piano Concerto No. 1) in a performance with the Brooklyn Orchestra conducted by Olivier Glissant, on Monday, November 27, 2023 at 7:30pm at Roulette Intermedium (509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn). This will be the Brooklyn native’s first performance at the venue. Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto, composed in 2000, has not been played in New York in 20 years. The concert will also include the New York premiere of Glass’s Symphony No. 14 (“Liechtenstein Suite”), composed in 2020 for the LGT Young Soloists, which gave the world premiere in 2021 at the Royal College of Music in London.
Simone Dinnerstein is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and is becoming known for her interpretations of Philip Glass’s music. She recorded and extensively performed his Piano Concerto No. 3, which he wrote for her in 2017, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. NPR reported of her recording of the piece, “Dinnerstein's creamy tone and elastic phrasing gives the music an air of Schubertian warmth and wistfulness.” The Washington Post writes of her interpretation of Mad Rush, “The vast architecture of Glass’s Mad Rush was shot through with ever-changing light, creating a hypnotic effect with a delicate symbiosis of the physical and spiritual.”
Dinnerstein began performing Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto No. 1 earlier this year. The seldom-performed work is based on melody fragments of traditional Austrian Volkslied, or folk music, in the Tyrolean tradition. It was commissioned by Festival Klangspuren and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 2000. Dinnerstein says of the piece, “The second movement of the ‘Tirol’ is what first drew me to it. Built almost as a set of variations, the sound is lush and pulsating, and its mood relates to his Symphony No 3 for strings. I love the play between intense lyricism and a feeling of austerity, so reminiscent of Schubert’s writing.”
The Brooklyn Orchestra is a symphonic ensemble dedicated to new music, striving to focus on contemporary composers. Created in 2015 by composer/conductor Olivier Glissant, the group was conceived to fuse genres of music that rarely meet on the classical stage and to bring music from multiple cultures to the orchestral repertoire, in an effort to make symphonic music accessible to a wider and more diverse audience.
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.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” performs Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto on a concert that also includes the New York premiere of his Symphony No. 14 with the Brooklyn Orchestra conducted by Olivier Glissant at Roulette.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with the Brooklyn Orchestra
Conducted by Olivier Glissant
What: Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto and New York premiere of his Symphony No. 14
When: Monday, November 27, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Roulette Intermedium, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Tickets and information: www.brooklynorchestra.org/calendarmain.html
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist in Concert at Carnegie Hall Presented by Chamber Orchestra of New York
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as soloist with Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Arianna Dominguez available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as soloist with
Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467
Conducted by Music Director Salvatore DiVittorio
Presented by Chamber Orchestra of New York
Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 7pm
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall | 57th St. and 7th Ave. | NYC
Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212.247.7800, or the Carnegie Hall Box Office
“lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance”
– The New Yorker
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
New York, NY – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who is described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” will be the featured soloist with Chamber Orchestra of New York conducted by Salvatore Di Vittorio, in a concert on Saturday, December 14, 2023 presented by Chamber Orchestra of New York at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.
Dinnerstein, an American pianist who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will be the featured soloist in a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467. The concert program will also include Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Suite by John Williams, and the world premiere of Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Suite Verdiana – a transcription of five of Verdi’s favorite operas.
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.” As a musician who embraces collaboration and inclusiveness with her artistry and performances, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 holds particular significance for Dinnerstein. Not only is the piece included on her 2017 album, Mozart in Havana, but the concerto served as a point of artistic connection between Dinnerstein and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, with which she performed the piece while visiting Cuba in 2015, at the invitation of her teacher and esteemed pianist, Solomon Mikowsky. Gramophone describes Dinnerstein’s performance of the C Major K 467 concerto as having “heartfelt directness, purity of line,”
Of the personal significance behind Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major and her cherished memories performing it, Dinnerstein says:
“This Mozart concerto has been one of my favorites since I was a child. I’ve had many memorable experiences performing it, from the thrilling experience of performing it in Vienna, where Mozart lived, to recording it in Havana with the extraordinary Havana Lyceum Orchestra and subsequently touring it with them in the United States. The writing is reminiscent of Mozart’s operatic output, and it is a complete joy to sing on the piano. I am excited to perform this work, collaborating for the first time with Salvatore DiVittorio and Chamber Orchestra of New York!”
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 Chamber Orchestra of New York: Chamber Orchestra of New York is a premier ensemble that features a seasoned roster of our city’s most flourishing musicians. The orchestra is internationally distinguished for championing unique repertoire that bridges the classical and modern traditions, including iconic film music, through premieres and world premiere recordings of rediscovered masterworks. Through all-embracing approaches with its distinct programs – from performances to educational outreach – the orchestra aims to cultivate a broader audience across generations for the future of classical music. The orchestra has received commissions from The Morgan Library & Museum, Dolce & Gabbana at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the United Nations, and Star Wars under Disney, among others. The orchestra’s albums for Naxos Records, including its work championing Respighi, continue to air worldwide to much acclaim. It has also established The Respighi Prize music competition, New York Conducting Workshop, and Maestro Juniors education program.
About Salvatore Di Vittorio: Salvatore Di Vittorio is an internationally respected, published composer and conductor, recognized for his uniquely lyrical, melodic orchestral music “following in the footsteps of Ottorino Respighi” – the revered 20th century composer who inspired great composers in both classical and film music. In 2008, the great nieces of Respighi, Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli, entrusted Di Vittorio with the restoration of several early orchestral works, including the completion of the first Concerto for violin (in A Major). With his profound natural gift of melody throughout all his memorable music, Di Vittorio’s forte of orchestration and arrangement is evidenced not only through his own original works but numerous elaborations across the spectrum from Claude Debussy to John Barry. A multifaceted career, doubling as an orchestral conductor, as Music Director of Chamber Orchestra of New York, further distinguishes Salvatore Di Vittorio from most orchestral composers today.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” is presented as a guest soloist with Chamber Orchestra of New York in for a performance conducted by Salvatore Di Vittorio at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, featuring the music of Mozart, John Williams, Tchaikovsky, and the world premiere of Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Suite Verdiana.
Short description: GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance” (The New Yorker), is presented in concert at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall with Chamber Orchestra of New York, led by Salvatore Di Vittorio. The concert will include music by Mozart, John Williams, Tchaikovsky, and the world premiere of Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Suite Verdiana.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Chamber Orchestra of New York
Presented by Chamber Orchestra of New York
Conducted by Salvatore Di Vittorio
What: Music by Mozart, John Williams, Tchaikovsky, and the world premiere of Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Suite Verdiana
When: Saturday, December 14, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: 57th St. and 7th Ave., New York, NY 10019
Tickets and information: www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2023/12/14/Chamber-Orchestra-of-New-York-0700PM
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Presented by The Catskill Mountain Foundation in Basically Bach with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Presented by The Catskill Mountain Foundation in Basically Bach with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra, Conducted by Robert Manno
Saturday, November 25, 2023 at 7:30pm - Orpheum Performing Arts Center
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Presented by
The Catskill Mountain Foundation in Basically Bach
with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra
Conducted by Robert Manno
Saturday, November 25, 2023 at 7:30pm
Orpheum Performing Arts Center | 6050 Main St | Tannersville, NY
Tickets and information: www.catskillmtn.org/orpheum-performing-arts-center/
“an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation”
– The New York Times
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Tannersville, NY – 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 Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra conducted by Robert Manno in a concert titled Basically Bach, on Saturday, November 25, 2023 at the Orpheum Performing Arts Center (6050 Main St.).
Dinnerstein, an American pianist who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, and who has come to be recognized and celebrated for her appreciation of J.S. Bach’s work, will be the featured soloist in performances of Bach’s keyboard concertos: Keyboard Concerto #6 in F Major BWV 1057 and Keyboard Concerto #2 in E Major BWV 1053. The concert program will also include Bach’s Orchestral Suite #3 in D Major BWV 1068, Handel’s Entrance of the Queen of Sheba from Solomon, and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos in G Minor, with cellists David Heiss and Ashley Bathgate.
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.”
Of her thoughts leading up to this Bach-centric program and collaborating with Robert Manno and the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra, Dinnerstein says:
“I am really looking forward to collaborating with Bob [Manno] and the musicians of the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra on this repertoire, which is so special to me. It will be my first performance of the F Major keyboard concerto, and it’s always fun to have musical dialogue with one flute, let alone with two! I think the audience will enjoy the bubbly joy of this particular work. The second movement of the E Major keyboard concerto has its origins in one of Bach’s cantatas, and it will be a joy to sing this music on the piano with Bob as my partner, given his experience and expertise in the world of opera.”
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. www.simonedinnerstein.com
About The Catskill Mountain Foundation: The Catskill Mountain Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation dedicated to arts, culture and educational enhancements in the northern Catskill Mountain region.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” is presented as a guest soloist with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra in a performance led by Robert Manno titled Basically Bach, featuring the music of J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Frideric Handel.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (The New York Times), is presented as the featured guest soloist with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra led by Robert Manno, in Basically Bach. The concert will include music by J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by The Catskill Mountain Foundation
Conducted by Robert Manno
What: Music by J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Frideric Handel
When: Saturday, November 25, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Orpheum Performing Arts Center 6050 Main St Tannersville, NY 12485
Tickets and information: www.catskillmtn.org/orpheum-performing-arts-center/
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by Spivey Hall Performing Music From her Album Undersong on November 5
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by Spivey Hall
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie From her Album Undersong
Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 3:00pm
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by Spivey Hall
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie From her Album Undersong
Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 3:00pm
Spivey Hall | 2000 Clayton State Blvd. | Morrow, GA 30260
Tickets and information: www.spiveyhall.org/events/event/simone-dinnerstein-piano/#sec-2015-1
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity”
– The Washington Post
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Morrow, GA – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert November 5, 2023 at Spivey Hall (2000 Clayton State Boulevard).
Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will make her Spivey Hall debut, performing several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album Undersong – the final installment in a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, which also includes A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020) and Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021). The latter surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The concert program will include: Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses and Tic-Toc-Choc; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Dinnerstein explains of Undersong’s title: “Undersong is an archaic term for a song with a refrain, and to me it also suggests a hidden text. Glass, Schumann, Couperin and Satie all seem to be attempting to find what they want to say through repetition, as though their constant change and recycling will focus the ear and the mind. This time has been one of reflection and reconsidering for many of us, and this music speaks to the process of revisiting and searching for the meaning beneath the notes, of the undersong.”
Reflecting on Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18, Dinnerstein explains that it’s “a very beautiful, poetic piece of music but it ends with a separate type of epilogue that's something different from the piece and modern in a way. There's a rest before you play it and the rest serves as a bridge to Philip Glass’s Mad Rush. It's unclear to the listener whether it's Schumann or Glass. I really like that blurring of the composer's languages with each other."
Dinnerstein offers this connective observation between Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16 and Schumann’s, Arabesque “The Arabesque has some quick changes in mood and the most breathtaking coda at the end that completely takes it someplace else, written in Schumann’s music language but sounding absolutely contemporary. In comparison, Kreisleriana changes on a dime. Suddenly, you’ll be in a completely different headspace. I think that’s as much about Schumann himself, as about his love for Clara.”
Sequenza21 describes Dinnerstein’s approach to Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses as “sonorous [and] eschewing ornamentation in favor of unadorned, shapely melodies.” Meanwhile, the tempo of Couperin’s Tic-Toc-Choc is thought to mirror the rhythmic precision of a clock and the full title (Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou Les Maillotins), references little hammers or mallets. The San Francisco Classical Voice says Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece makes it appear as if she “magically transform[s] the piano into a harpsichord.”
With its distinctly repetitious compositional structure, Philip Glass’s Mad Rush, a piece originally composed for organ at New York City’s St. John the Divine, underscores the collectively seamless nature of this program’s repertoire. The New Criterion describes Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece as “transcendent – the picture of introspection interrupted by unexpected vision.”
Of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3, Dinnerstein says, “Erik Satie published three Gymnopédie and three Gnossienne together, though he eventually wrote more Gnossienne, a fantastical term that he came up with. The markings in the score for Gnossienne No. 3 are bizarre: “Plan carefully”; “Provide yourself with clear sightedness”; “Alone for a moment”; “So as to get a hollow”; “Quite lost”; “Carry this further”; “Open your mind”. These are written right over the notes. The commentary is dada-esque.”
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. www.simonedinnerstein.com
About Spivey Hall: Spivey Hall, located on the campus of Clayton State University, is a 400-seat, acoustically-superior performing arts venue that has presented the best in jazz and classical music to the metro Atlanta area since 1991.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert by Spivey Hall. Dinnerstein will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album, Undersong, including Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses and Tic-Toc-Choc; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert by Spivey Hall, performing selections by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie From her 2022 album Undersong.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by Spivey Hall
What: Music by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie
When: Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 3pm
Where: Spivey Hall, 2000 Clayton State Boulevard, Morrow, GA 30260
Tickets and information: www.spiveyhall.org/events/event/simone-dinnerstein-piano/#sec-2015-1
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center Performing Music by From her Album Undersong
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented byBlack Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie From her Album Undersong
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 7pmBlack Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Tanya Braganti available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie From her Album Undersong
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 7pm
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
120 College Street | Asheville, NC
Tickets and information: www.blackmountaincollege.org/simone-dinnerstein/
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity”
– The Washington Post
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Asheville, NC – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as an “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert November 8, 2023 at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (120 College Street).
Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album Undersong –– the final installment in a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, which also includes A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020) and Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021). The latter surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The concert program will include: Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses and Tic-Toc-Choc; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Dinnerstein explains of Undersong’s title: “Undersong is an archaic term for a song with a refrain, and to me it also suggests a hidden text. Glass, Schumann, Couperin and Satie all seem to be attempting to find what they want to say through repetition, as though their constant change and recycling will focus the ear and the mind. This time has been one of reflection and reconsidering for many of us, and this music speaks to the process of revisiting and searching for the meaning beneath the notes, of the undersong.”
Reflecting on Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18, Dinnerstein explains that it’s “a very beautiful, poetic piece of music but it ends with a separate type of epilogue that's something different from the piece and modern in a way. There's a rest before you play it and the rest serves as a bridge to Philip Glass’s Mad Rush. It's unclear to the listener whether it's Schumann or Glass. I really like that blurring of the composer's languages with each other."
Dinnerstein offers this connective observation between Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16 and Schumann’s, Arabesque “The Arabesque has some quick changes in mood and the most breathtaking coda at the end that completely takes it someplace else, written in Schumann’s music language but sounding absolutely contemporary. In comparison, Kreisleriana changes on a dime. Suddenly, you’ll be in a completely different headspace. I think that’s as much about Schumann himself, as about his love for Clara.”
Sequenza21 describes Dinnerstein’s approach to Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses as “sonorous [and] eschewing ornamentation in favor of unadorned, shapely melodies.” Meanwhile, the tempo of Couperin’s Tic-Toc-Choc is thought to mirror the rhythmic precision of a clock and the full title (Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou Les Maillotins), references little hammers or mallets. The San Francisco Classical Voice says Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece makes it appear as if she “magically transform[s] the piano into a harpsichord.”
With its distinctly repetitious compositional structure, Philip Glass’s Mad Rush, a piece originally composed for organ at New York City’s St. John the Divine, underscores the collectively seamless nature of this program’s repertoire. The New Criterion describes Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece as “transcendent – the picture of introspection interrupted by unexpected vision.”
Of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3, Dinnerstein says, “Erik Satie published three Gymnopédie and three Gnossienne together, though he eventually wrote more Gnossienne, a fantastical term that he came up with. The markings in the score for Gnossienne No. 3 are bizarre: “Plan carefully”; “Provide yourself with clear sightedness”; “Alone for a moment”; “So as to get a hollow”; “Quite lost”; “Carry this further”; “Open your mind”. These are written right over the notes. The commentary is dada-esque.”
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. www.simonedinnerstein.com
About Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center: The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) preserves and continues the legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College (BMC). We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibitions, publications, and public programs. Arts advocate Mary Holden founded BMCM+AC in 1993 to celebrate the history of Black Mountain College as a forerunner in progressive interdisciplinary education and to explore its extraordinary impact on modern and contemporary art, dance, theater, music, and performance. Today, the museum remains committed to educating the public about BMC’s history and raising awareness of its extensive legacy. Our goal is to provide a gathering point for people from a variety of backgrounds to interact through art, ideas, and discourse.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert by Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Dinnerstein will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music release, Undersong, including Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses and Tic-Toc-Choc; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described as an artist of “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” (The Washington Post) is presented in concert by Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, performing selections by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie from her 2022 album Undersong.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Caroga Arts Ensemble Conducted by Music Director Alexander Platt
Presented by Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
What: Music by Music by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie
When: Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 3pm
Where: 120 College St, Asheville, NC 28801
Tickets and information: www.blackmountaincollege.org/simone-dinnerstein/
Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt Perform at the Kennedy Center Presented by Washington Performing Arts
Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt Perform at the Kennedy Center Presented by Washington Performing Arts
Performing Music byJ.S. Bach, Brahms, Glass, Schubert, and Beethoven
Monday, October 30, 2023 at 7:30pm, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt Perform at the Kennedy Center Presented by Washington Performing Arts
Performing Music by
J.S. Bach, Brahms, Glass, Schubert, and Beethoven
Monday, October 30, 2023 at 7:30pm
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
2700 F Street Northwest | Washington, DC
Tickets and information:
www.washingtonperformingarts.org/seasontickets/2023-24-season/simone-dinnerstein-awadagin-pratt/
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity”
– The Washington Post
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Washington DC – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic,” along with esteemed pianist Awadagin Pratt, will be presented in concert by Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater (2700 F Street Northwest, Washington, DC). The concert will take place on Monday, October 30, 2023 at 7:30pm.
American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice. 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.”
For this performance, Dinnerstein and Pratt will collaborate on a program featuring several piano works written for four hands. Beyond their mutual passion for and prestige with the piano, Dinnerstein and Pratt share a connection through Washington Performing Arts, as both have taken part in its cherished Hayes Piano Series. The performance series was launched in 1966 in honor of Washington Performing Arts founder Patrick Hayes and wife, pianist and pedagogue Evelyn Swarthout Hayes. Dinnerstein and Pratt will perform J.S. Bach's O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig, BWV 1085 as transcribed by György Kurtag; Schubert’s bright and dynamic Fantasie in F minor, Op. 28; and Beethoven’s stately Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68 “Pastoral” –– as arranged by Selmar Bagge –– together at a single piano. The performance will also feature solo performances of Ballades Nos. 1 and 2, Op. 10 by Brahms and Philip Glass’s Etude No. 6.
Of the uniqueness built into a four hand concert program and performing alongside Awadagin Pratt, Dinnerstein says:
“There is an intimacy to the four-hand 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 four-hands 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.
I have admired Awadagin’s musicianship for many years and remember the first time that we read four-hand music together, backstage before a fabulous recital that he gave in Fairfield, CT. In the past few years, Awadagin has joined me in performances of Bach’s keyboard concertos for two, three, and four pianos with my ensemble, Baroklyn at the Miller Theater at Columbia University. It is always a thrill to collaborate with him, and I am greatly looking forward to our first four-hand recital together at the Kennedy Center!”
More About Simone Dinnerstein: Simone 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.
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. www.simonedinnerstein.com
About Awadigan 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 Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” and esteemed pianist Awadagin Pratt, are presented in concert by Washington Performing Arts. Dinnerstein and Pratt will perform a program featuring several selections written for piano with four hands, as well as solo selections. The concert will include music by J.S. Bach/György Kurtág, Brahms, Glass, Schubert, and Beethoven/Selmar Bagge.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” (The Washington Post) and pianist Awadagin Pratt, are presented by Washington Performing Arts, performing selections by J.S. Bach/György Kurtág, Brahms, Glass, Schubert, and Beethoven/Selmar Bagge.
Concert details:
Who: Pianists Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt
Presented by Washington Performing Arts
What: Music by J.S. Bach/György Kurtág, Brahms, Glass, Schubert, and Beethoven/Selmar Bagge
When: Monday, October 30, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, 2700 F Street Northwest, Washington, DC
Tickets and information: www.washingtonperformingarts.org/seasontickets/2023-24-season/simone-dinnerstein-awadagin-pratt/
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Guest Soloist with Alabama Symphony Orchestra on October 12th
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Guest Soloistwith Alabama Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Music Director Carlos Izcaray, Featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major
First of Three Performances as part of the Gogue Center’s 2023–24 Orchestraand Chamber Music Series
Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 7pm; Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Guest Soloist
with Alabama Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Music Director Carlos Izcaray
Featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major
First of Three Performances as part of the Gogue Center’s 2023–24 Orchestra
and Chamber Music Series
Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 7pm
Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center
910 South College Street | Auburn, AL
Tickets and information:
https://www.goguecenter.auburn.edu/simone-dinnerstein-and-the-alabama-symphony-orchestra/
“lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance”
– The New Yorker
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Auburn, AL – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein will be the featured guest soloist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, October 12, 2023, for a performance in the Woltosz Theatre at the Gogue Performing Arts Center (910 South College Street). Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major as part of a concert program which also features Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro Overture and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92. The performance will be conducted by Music Director Carlos Izcaray. This will be the first of three appearances by Dinnerstein as part of the Gogue Center’s 2023–24 Orchestra and Chamber Music Series.
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. Brahms’ second piano concerto is a new addition to her repertoire. She says, “Brahms’s second piano concerto has long been my favorite, but I never felt ready to play it. Something about turning fifty felt like it was about time I faced this challenge, and I have spent the past few months delving deep into the forest of this remarkable work.”
As part of the Gogue Center’s Orchestra and Chamber Music Series for 2023-2024, Dinnerstein will be presented in two additional performances in 2024. On January 26, 2024, Dinnerstein will perform The Eye Is the First Circle, the first project Dinnerstein conceived, created, and directed. The performance will be done in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett. Then on April 5, 2024, Dinnerstein will lead her ensemble, Baroklyn, in a program of all Bach repertoire in the final presentation of the Gogue Center’s Orchestra and Chamber Music Series.
Of collaborating with conductor Carlos Izcaray and giving three performances with the Gogue Center, Dinnerstein says:
“I feel honored to be presented by the Gogue Center in three performances this season. My last performance before the pandemic was at the beautiful concert hall of the Gogue Center and I am very excited to return to this wonderful venue with their abundance of fine pianos! I am also looking forward to collaborating with the distinguished conductor, Carlos Izcaray. I have found that conductors that regularly work with stellar youth orchestras have a particular vibrancy and freshness to their approach. As the conductor of the American Youth Symphony, I am eager to see how this element of Maestro Izcaray’s musicianship will add to our collaboration with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.”
Simone Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and the 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, the Seoul Arts Center and the Sydney Opera House.
She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard classical charts, with repertoire ranging from Couperin to Glass. From 2020 to 2022, she released a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic. A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020), featuring the music of Philip Glass and Schubert, was described by NPR as, “music that speaks to a sense of the world slowing down,” and by The New Yorker as, “a reminder that quiet can contain multitudes.” Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021), surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 GRAMMY Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The final installment in the trilogy, Undersong, was released in January 2022 on Orange Mountain Music.
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 Alabama Symphony Orchestra: The formation of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO) began with the first performance by a group of volunteer musicians in 1921. That group would evolve from a volunteer ensemble to the state’s only full-time professional orchestra. Today, the ASO is continuing to make music and provide vital services to the residents of the state, serving nearly 100,000 individuals a year through concert series, youth programs, and educational and community engagement efforts to fulfill its mission to change lives through music. The Alabama Symphony Orchestra has entertained and enriched audiences for almost a century, playing a variety of classical and popular music and hosting performances by some of the finest guest artists in the world. Performing 100 concerts annually, the 53 talented musicians of the ASO bring to life some of the world’s most treasured musical masterpieces and introduce listeners to exciting new works and composers.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented as the featured guest soloist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra in a performance led by Music Director Carlos Izcaray, of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major. The evening’s program will also include performances of The Marriage of Figaro Overture by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92. This is the first of three scheduled appearances by Dinnerstein for the Gogue Center’s 2023–24 Orchestra and Chamber Music Series.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance” (The New Yorker), is presented in a performance with the the Alabama Symphony Orchestra led by Music Director Carlos Izcaray, as the featured soloist in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Music Director Carlos Izcaray
What: Music by Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 7pm
Where: Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center, 910 South College Street, Auburn, AL
Tickets and information: www.goguecenter.auburn.edu/simone-dinnerstein-and-the-alabama-symphony-orchestra/
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by Schubert+ Festival Unity Temple
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by Schubert+ Festival Unity Temple
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie From her Album Undersong and A Character of Quiet
Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 7:30pm, Unity Temple
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by
Schubert+ Festival Unity Temple
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie
From her Album Undersong and A Character of Quiet
Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 7:30pm
Unity Temple | 875 Lake St. | Oak Park, IL
Tickets and information:
www.schubertfestivalunitytemple.org/program-and-tickets
“lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance”
– The New Yorker
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Oak Park, IL – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic,” will be presented in concert by the Schubert+ Festival on Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 7:30pm at Unity Temple (875 Lake St.), an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Dinnerstein is part of a two-concert event that also includes vocalist Meigui Zhang, who will perform separately at 4:30pm. A dinner break will be held at 6pm with a limited number of tickets available for an Austrian style meal offered at a separate cost of $50.00 per person.
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.”
On October 14, Dinnerstein will perform selections from her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album Undersong –– the final installment in a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, which also included A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020) and Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021). The latter surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. In addition to works from Undersong, Dinnerstein will also perform music from A Character of Quiet. Her concert program will include Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses and Tic-Toc-Choc; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush and Etude No. 2; and Franz Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major, D 960.
Dinnerstein explains of Undersong’s title: “Undersong is an archaic term for a song with a refrain, and to me it also suggests a hidden text. Glass, Schumann, Couperin and Satie all seem to be attempting to find what they want to say through repetition, as though their constant change and recycling will focus the ear and the mind. This time has been one of reflection and reconsidering for many of us, and this music speaks to the process of revisiting and searching for the meaning beneath the notes, of the undersong.”
Sequenza21 describes Dinnerstein’s approach to Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses as “sonorous [and] eschewing ornamentation in favor of unadorned, shapely melodies.” Meanwhile, the tempo of Couperin’s Tic-Toc-Choc is thought to mirror the rhythmic precision of a clock and the full title (Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou Les Maillotins), references little hammers or mallets. The San Francisco Classical Voice says Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece makes it appear as if she “magically transform[s] the piano into a harpsichord.”
Dinnerstein explains that Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 is “a very beautiful, poetic piece of music but it ends with a separate type of epilogue that's something different from the piece and modern in a way. There's a rest before you play it and the rest serves as a bridge to Philip Glass’s Mad Rush. It's unclear to the listener whether it's Schumann or Glass. I really like that blurring of the composer's languages with each other."
With its distinctly repetitious compositional structure, Philip Glass’s Mad Rush, a piece originally composed for organ at New York City’s St. John the Divine, underscores the collectively seamless nature of this program’s repertoire. The New Criterion describes Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece as “transcendent – the picture of introspection interrupted by unexpected vision.” Of her interpretation of Glass’s Etude No. 2, Classics Today said Dinnerstein ”savor[s] every note without losing any sense of narrative,“
Reflecting upon her experience reconnecting with music during the pandemic lockdown, Dinnerstein explains how Glass’s etudes and Schubert’s B-flat Sonata stood out to her:
“Once I’d warmed up to the idea of playing again there was the question of what to record. The three Glass etudes and the Schubert B-flat Sonata immediately came to mind. Glass and Schubert are very different composers but they share some unexpected similarities. I love their pared down quality, their economy, their ability to change everything by changing just one note in a chord. Their asceticism suited the moment. But there is a sensual element in both, too, because the human voice is central to Glass and Schubert’s sound worlds. They both create a feeling of a solitary journey, a sense of time being trapped through repeated vision and revision as the music tries to work itself to a conclusion. This all spoke to the way I was feeling.”
More About Simone Dinnerstein: Simone 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.
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. www.simonedinnerstein.com
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic,” is presented in concert by the Schubert+ Festival. Dinnerstein will perform several selections found on her 2022 album, Undersong, as well as her 2020 album, A Character of Quiet –– both released on Orange Mountain Music. The program will feature Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses and Tic-Toc-Choc; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush and Etude No. 2; and Franz Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major, D 960.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic,” is presented in concert by the Schubert+ Festival, performing selections by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Franz Schubert from her albums A Character of Quiet (2020) and Undersong (2022).
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by Schubert+ Festival Unity Temple
What: Music by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Franz Schubert
When: Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Unity Temple, 875 Lake St, Oak Park, IL 60301
Tickets and information: www.schubertfestivalunitytemple.org/program-and-tickets/
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater Performs Music from her Album Undersong
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie From her Album Undersong
Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 7:30pm
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented by
the Wisconsin Union Theater
Performing Music by Couperin, Schumann, Glass, and Satie
From her Album Undersong
Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 7:30pm
Shannon Hall at Memorial Union | 800 Langdon St. | Madison, WI
Tickets and information:
www.union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/simone-dinnerstein-piano/
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity”
– The Washington Post
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Madison, WI – Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater on August 28, 2023 at Shannon Hall at Memorial Union.
Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album Undersong –– the final installment in a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, which also includes A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020) and Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021). The latter surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The concert program will include: Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses and Tic-Toc-Choc; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Dinnerstein explains of Undersong’s title: “Undersong is an archaic term for a song with a refrain, and to me it also suggests a hidden text. Glass, Schumann, Couperin and Satie all seem to be attempting to find what they want to say through repetition, as though their constant change and recycling will focus the ear and the mind. This time has been one of reflection and reconsidering for many of us, and this music speaks to the process of revisiting and searching for the meaning beneath the notes, of the undersong.”
Reflecting on Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18, Dinnerstein explains that it’s “a very beautiful, poetic piece of music but it ends with a separate type of epilogue that's something different from the piece and modern in a way. There's a rest before you play it and the rest serves as a bridge to Philip Glass’s Mad Rush. It's unclear to the listener whether it's Schumann or Glass. I really like that blurring of the composer's languages with each other."
Dinnerstein offers this connective observation between Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16 and Schumann’s, Arabesque “The Arabesque has some quick changes in mood and the most breathtaking coda at the end that completely takes it someplace else, written in Schumann’s music language but sounding absolutely contemporary. In comparison, Kreisleriana changes on a dime. Suddenly, you’ll be in a completely different headspace. I think that’s as much about Schumann himself, as about his love for Clara.”
Sequenza21 describes Dinnerstein’s approach to Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses as “sonorous [and] eschewing ornamentation in favor of unadorned, shapely melodies.” Meanwhile, the tempo of Couperin’s Tic-Toc-Choc is thought to mirror the rhythmic precision of a clock and the full title (Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou Les Maillotins), references little hammers or mallets. The San Francisco Classical Voice says Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece makes it appear as if she “magically transform[s] the piano into a harpsichord.”
With its distinctly repetitious compositional structure, Philip Glass’s Mad Rush, a piece originally composed for organ at New York City’s St. John the Divine, underscores the collectively seamless nature of this program’s repertoire. The New Criterion describes Dinnerstein’s performance of the piece as “transcendent – the picture of introspection interrupted by unexpected vision.”
Of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3, Dinnerstein says, “Erik Satie published three Gymnopédie and three Gnossienne together, though he eventually wrote more Gnossienne, a fantastical term that he came up with. The markings in the score for Gnossienne No. 3 are bizarre: “Plan carefully”; “Provide yourself with clear sightedness”; “Alone for a moment”; “So as to get a hollow”; “Quite lost”; “Carry this further”; “Open your mind”. These are written right over the notes. The commentary is dada-esque.”
Patrons can visit union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/simone-dinnerstein-piano/, visit the Memorial Union Box Office or call (608) 265-2787 to purchase tickets to experience Dinnerstein’s artistry. Patrons can save on season events tickets by purchasing subscriptions available between June 1 and Sept. 28, including a Wisconsin Union Theater Classical Series subscription for a 20% discount or brand-new build-your-own subscription options of three to five events for 15% off or six or more events for a 20% discount.
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. www.simonedinnerstein.com
About the Wisconsin Union Theater: For more than 80 years, the Wisconsin Union Theater has served as a center for cultural activity in the heart of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The Theater hosts performances in multiple locations, including Memorial Union, and has an extensive history of remarkable performances. The Wisconsin Union Theater is committed to social justice and works to create an equitable, diverse, and inclusive place for all who engage with the Theater’s programming, events, and activities. The Wisconsin Union Theater is part of the Wisconsin Union, a membership organization that blends study and leisure to create unique out-of-classroom opportunities. Learn more: union.wisc.edu/wisconsin-union-theater.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert by the Wisconsin Union Theater. Dinnerstein will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album, Undersong, including Robert Schumann’s Arabesque, in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses and Tic-Toc-Choc; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented in concert by the Wisconsin Union Theater performing selections by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie From her 2022 album Undersong.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater
What: Music by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie
When: Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Memorial Union, Shannon Hall, 800 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706
Tickets and information: www.union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/simone-dinnerstein-piano/
September 23rd, Simone Dinnerstein Performs with Emmanuel Music Conducted by Ryan Turner with Video Installation by Laurie Olinder
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Emmanuel Music Conducted by Artistic Director Ryan Turner
Performing Concertos by J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Glasswith Video Installation by Laurie Olinder
Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 7pm
Distler Hall at Tufts University
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Emmanuel Music Conducted by Artistic Director Ryan Turner
Performing Concertos by J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Glass
with Video Installation by Laurie Olinder
Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 7pm
Distler Hall at Tufts University
20 Talbot Ave. | Medford, MA
Tickets and information:
www.emmanuelmusic.org/performance-info/season-announcement
“an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation”
– The New York Times
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Medford, MA – Following an immensely successful performance in June 2022, pianist Simone Dinnerstein returns to perform with Emmanuel Music on Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 7pm at Distler Hall at Tufts University (12 Talbot Ave.). Artistic Director Ryan Turner will conduct. Celebrated for her distinctive musical voice and her commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, Dinnerstein and Emmanuel Music will perform three piano concertos: Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 467, and the “Tirol” Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Philip Glass. The performance will be coupled with a visual counterpoint in the form of an abstract video journey by artist Laurie Olinder. Dinnerstein and Olinder have collaborated before in Dinnerstein’s 2021 production, The Eye is the First Circle.
Of the opportunity to collaborate with Dinnerstein again this season, Music Director Ryan Turner says:
“I am incredibly excited to work together again! [Simone Dinnerstein’s] collaborative approach combined with dazzling skill and poetic interpretation make for an ideal musical partner. And, our orchestra relishes playing with Simone!“
Recognized for her appreciation of J.S. Bach’s work, Dinnerstein recorded Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in D Minor BWV 1052 on her 2011 Sony Classical release, Bach: A Strange Beauty. Even then, more than 10 years ago, the Grammy-nominated pianist was lauded for her approach to Bach’s music and the resulting beauty and skill of her execution. NPR described Dinnerstein’s recording as a, “wonderfully expressive interpretation.” One can also relish in Dinnerstein’s thoughtful approach to Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 467 on her 2017 Sony Classical release, Mozart in Havana with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra. Gramophone describes Dinnerstein’s performance as offering “heartfelt directness [and] purity of line.”
Dinnerstein recorded and extensively performed Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 3, written for her in 2017, but this will be her first time performing Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 1 “Tirol” from 2000, a seldom-played work based on traditional Austrian folk music, Volkslied.
Of this unique piece by Glass and the opportunity to work with Laurie Olinder again, Dinnerstein says:
“I am eagerly looking forward to collaborating again with Ryan Turner and Emmanuel Music in this unusual program featuring three of my favorite piano concertos. I have performed Bach’s D Minor and Mozart’s K 467 many times, but this will be my first performance of Glass’s Tirol. The second movement of the Tirol is what first drew me to it. Built almost as a set of variations, the sound is lush and pulsating, and its mood relates to his Symphony No 3 for strings. I love the play between intense lyricism and a feeling of austerity, so reminiscent of Schubert’s writing.
I’m also excited that the visual artist, Laurie Olinder, will be collaborating on this performance with her colorful and dynamic video art. Laurie and I worked together over the pandemic creating The Eye is the First Circle, a devised work using my father, Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. I can’t wait to see how she brings this added visual dimension to the music on this program.”
Laurie Olinder says:
“Watching the shadow of leaves trembling on a wall, a current of air fluttering the leaves on a branch or the sun’s reflection rippling on the water’s surface. The rhythm of nature has a music all its own. This is what inspires me. The mind seeks to find connections to these cadences.”
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. www.simonedinnerstein.com
About Emmanuel Music: Through its performing, teaching, mentoring, and scholarly activities, Emmanuel Music occupies a unique niche: a living laboratory for the music of J. S. Bach. Emmanuel Music finds new and creative ways for audiences and musicians to engage with the artistic, spiritual, and humanistic aspects of the music of J. S. Bach, the cornerstone of our musical output for our first fifty years.
We seek to make Bach’s music deeply relevant to our current lives, including highlighting the connections between Bach and artists that he influenced, especially creative voices that have been marginalized in our society. Building on the symbiotic partnership between an arts nonprofit and an intellectually curious and open-minded religious community, Emmanuel Music further embraces Bach’s sacred music, especially his cantatas, as opportunities to explore the transcendent aspects of our shared human experience.
By embracing a new mission and strategic plan in March 2021, Emmanuel Music asserts its role as an essential musical, humanistic, intellectual force for participatory engagement in its local community, and around the world through its online programming. Learn more at www.emmanuelmusic.org.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” performs with Emmanuel Music conducted by Artistic Director Ryan Turner in three piano concertos - J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in D Minor BWV 1052, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 467, and Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. The performance will be coupled with a visual counterpoint in the form of an abstract video journey by artist Laurie Olinder.
Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” performs with Emmanuel Music and Artistic Director Ryan Turner in J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in D Minor BWV 1052, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 467, and Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with visuals by artist Laurie Olinder
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Emmanuel Music
Conducted by Artistic Director Ryan Turner
What: Music by J.S. Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Philip Glass with abstract visuals by artist Laurie Olinder
When: Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 7pm
Where: Distler Hall at Tufts University; 20 Talbot Ave, Medford, MA 02155
Tickets and information: www.emmanuelmusic.org/performance-info/season-announcement