Pianist Simone Dinnerstein to Maverick Concert Hall Next Month

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein will be presented by Maverick Concerts at Maverick Concert Hall (120 Maverick Rd) on Saturday August 26, 2023 at 6pm. Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and her commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, is the featured soloist in a performance of Bach's Piano Concerto in D Minor with the Caroga Arts Ensemble, conducted by Music Director Alexander Platt. The concert also includes Mozart's Adagio and Fugue, K.546; Mahler's Adagietto from the Symphony No.5; and Schoenberg's Transfigured Night (version 1943).

Recognized and celebrated 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 performance with the Keyboard Concerto in D Minor on the album as a “wonderfully expressive interpretation.” The San Francisco Classical Voice writes that it's Dinnerstein's “almost Romantic-style legato and narrow-ranged rhythmic freedom that impresses,” and that “this approach reaps the greatest rewards to the listener.”

On the chance to perform this Bach concerto with the Caroga Arts Ensemble, Dinnerstein says:

“It is always such an inspiring experience to perform at the Maverick. There's something about the old wood of the concert hall mingling with the sound of the birds outside and the palpably wrapt listening of the audience that makes the music come alive in a new way. I am looking forward to meeting the wonderful musicians of the Caroga Arts Ensemble and bringing Bach's music to life in this special space.”

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 Maverick Concerts:

Maverick Concerts, Inc. is the oldest, continuous summer chamber music festival in America, celebrating over a century of world class music in the woods. The mainstay of the festival, which runs from June to September, is to be found in the Sunday chamber music concerts performed by renowned soloists and ensembles. Jazz and Contemporary Music presentations have been given more prominence in recent seasons. Our popular Young Mavericks Festival, designed to introduce students to the wonder and power of various musical genres, are free for youth age 16 and under. The festival is a winner of the Award for Adventurous Programming, accorded jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP.)

Maverick Concerts, Inc., is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Concerts are made possible in part with an award from the National Endowment for the Arts; funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the Maverick Concerts Endowment Fund; Friends of Maverick; the towns of Woodstock and Hurley; local businesses; individual donors; and other public and private foundations. Yamaha, the official piano of Maverick Concerts, appears through the generosity of Yamaha Artist Services.