Miller Theatre Presents The Final Two Bach Series Concerts Curated By SIMONE DINNERSTEIN

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts will present the final two concerts in its 2023-24 BACH series with pianist/curator Simone Dinnerstein.

Full details here:

Thursday, April 11, 8PM

Bach Suites and Concertos

Two of Bach's lively and virtuosic Orchestral Suites, his treasured Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, and his beloved Keyboard Concerto No. 6 are performed together for a dazzling evening of music-making, featuring virtuosic flutists Christina Jennings and Ilaria Loisa Hawley as soloists.

PROGRAM:
J.S. Bach         Keyboard Concerto No. 6 in F major, BWV 1057 (1738)
J.S. Bach         Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 (c. 1738-39)
J.S. Bach         Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 (c. 1731)
J.S. Bach         Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 (c. 1720-21)
with continuo realizations for Simone Dinnerstein by Philip Lasser

ARTISTS:
Christina Jennings, flute
Ilaria Loisa Hawley, flute
Ensemble Baroklyn
Simone Dinnerstein, piano and artistic director

Thursday, April 25, 8PM

Bach Sinfonias

Even though J.S. Bach's 15 Sinfonias were written as technical exercises for his students, they are ingenious and brilliant masterpieces of beautiful complexity. Celebrated pianist Simone Dinnerstein offers her expressive interpretation of this collection, alongside works by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Keith Jarrett, and Philip Lasser.

PROGRAM:

Philip Lasser                          Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach (2002)
Keith Jarrett                          Encore from Tokyo (1978)
Jean-Philippe Rameau        Gavotte et 6 doubles (c. 1729-30)
J.S. Bach                                 15 Sinfonias BWV 787-801 (1720-23)

ARTISTS:
Simone Dinnerstein, piano

About the Artists

Simone Dinnerstein, piano
simonedinnerstein.com

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein is known as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” (The Washington Post). Her self-produced recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations in 2007 brought her considerable attention, with The New York Times calling her “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard classical charts, with repertoire ranging from Couperin to Glass. Her most recent album, Undersong, was released in January 2022 on Orange Mountain Music.

The New York-based pianist's schedule has taken her around the world, playing with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai, and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, which she brought from Cuba to tour the United States for the very first time. She has also played 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. 

Performance highlights include Piano Concerto No. 3, a composition by Philip Glass for her that was co-commissioned by twelve American and Canadian orchestras; the premiere of André Previn and Tom Stoppard's Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Aspen music festivals and Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Cleveland Orchestra, working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet; the premiere of Richard Danielpour's An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic; and 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. For the 2023-24 season, she joined Awadagin Pratt for a four-hand piano program presented by Washington Performing Arts at The Kennedy Center, and was the featured soloist for the Chamber Orchestra of New York's performance at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. She also presents two series anchored by Bach at Miller Theatre at Columbia University and at the Gogue Center for the Performing Arts at Auburn University, featuring her string ensemble, Baroklyn, which she founded and directs.

Dedicated to her community in Brooklyn, Dinnerstein founded Neighborhood Classics in 2009, a concert series that raises funds for music education programs in New York City schools, and Bachpacking, a music program for elementary schools. A graduate of The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, Dinnerstein is on the faculty of the Mannes School of Music and is a guest host/producer of WQXR's Young Artists Showcase.

Ilaria Loisa Hawley, flute

Born in 2009, Ilaria Loisa Hawley is the recipient of a 2019 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and the inaugural recipient of Claire Chase's Pnea Foundation Young Flutist Award. Hawley's music has been performed by the New York Philharmonic and Face the Music. She is a composition student of Mathew Fuerst and a flute student of Zara Lawler. In 2020, Hawley garnered a First Commission from Composers Now for her work Quando L'acqua riflette (When the Water Reflects), performed by Kaufman Music Center's Face the Music. The world premiere of Quando L'acqua was given at the Composers Now Festival Opening Event. Hawley attends PS 314 Muscota New School in New York City.

Christina Jennings, flute
christinajennings.com

Christina Jennings is Principal Flute with the Arizona Musicfest! Orchestra and has performed frequently with Orchestra 2001. Previously, she was the principal flute with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Houston) for ten years. As a concerto soloist, Jennings has appeared with over fifty orchestras including the Utah and Houston Symphonies. She has worked with a diverse group of artists including Jethro Tull, David Parsons Dance Company, and members of Pilobolus. Chamber music partners have included the Ensō String Quartet, Takács Quartet, the Brasil Guitar Duo, Lucy Shelton, Simone Dinnerstein, Jonathan Leathwood, and Bridget Kibbey. Jennings is the winner of numerous competitions including the Concert Artists Guild, Houston Symphony's Ima Hogg, and The National Flute Association's Young Artist. She can be heard on CDs by Alec Wilder alongside jazz artist Marian McPartland, and recordings by Laura Elise Schwendinger. Her most recent recording is of flute music by the American composer George Rochberg. Jennings is currently Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Colorado Boulder and is on the summer faculty of Greenwood Music Camp and ARIA. She is also the director of the Panoramic Flutist Seminar and the Once a Flutist Festival in Boulder. Jennings received her bachelor's and master's degrees at The Juilliard School.

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