SIMONE DINNERSTEIN

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has been called "a throwback to such high priestesses of music as Wanda Landowska and Myra Hess," by Slate magazine, and praised by TIME for her "arresting freshness and subtlety." The New York-based pianist gained an international following because of the remarkable success of her recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, which she raised the funds to record. Released in 2007 on Telarc, it ranked No. 1 on the US Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales and was named to many "Best of 2007" lists including those of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker. Her follow-up album, The Berlin Concert, also gained the No. 1 spot on the Chart.

Ms. Dinnerstein has since signed an exclusive agreement with Sony Classical, and her first album for that label - Bach: A Strange Beauty - was released in January 2011, immediately earning the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Classical Chart, and making the Billboard Top 200 which compiles the entire music industry's top selling albums in all genres. The Washington Post raved, "Dinnerstein's readings may be said to plumb these works' genuine depths . . . poised, elegant, wonderfully played." In conjunction with the album's release, Ms. Dinnerstein was featured on national television by CBS Sunday Morning. She was the bestselling instrumentalist of 2011 on the US Billboard Classical Chart, and was also included in NPR's 2011 100 Favorite Songs from all genres.

Sony released Ms. Dinnerstein's latest album, Something Almost Being Said: Music of Bach and Schubert, in January 2012. In its first week on sale in the US, it also made Billboard's Top Current albums in all genres, and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Classical Chart. The San Francisco Chronicle describes Simone's interpretations as "eloquent and fine" and her playing as having "stately beauty."

Ms. Dinnerstein's performance schedule has taken her around the world since her triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 2005 to venues including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and London's Wigmore Hall; festivals that include the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, the Aspen, Verbier, and Ravinia festivals, and the Stuttgart Bach Festival; and performances with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Kristjan Järvi's Absolute Ensemble, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony.

Ms. Dinnerstein is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she was a student of Peter Serkin. She was a winner of the Astral Artist National Auditions, and has twice received the Classical Recording Foundation Award. She also studied with Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music and in London with Maria Curcio. Simone Dinnerstein (pronounced See-MOHN-uh DIN-ner-steen) lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and son. She is managed by Tanja Dorn at IMG Artists and is a Sony Classical artist.

Friends of Music Concert Repertoire:

Bach, Goldberg Variations