Simone Dinnerstein Performs Bach's Goldberg Variations at Hamilton Stage, 1/10

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein gained international success from her recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, which ranked No. 1 on the US Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales. Released in 2007 on Telarc, it was named to many "Best of" lists including those of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker. Ms. Dinnerstein will perform the Goldberg Variations live on Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 8pm at Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts (360 Hamilton Street) as part of the Good Music Mostly Classical Concert Series.

Simone Dinnerstein states, "My relationship with the Goldberg Variations is a lifelong one. I find the music endlessly fascinating and expressive and challenging. Every few years I like to practice and perform the variations again, and the process of rediscovering the music shows me how I have grown and changed in the interim. I am excited to find new details in the score that I hadn't noticed before and I warmly reconnect with the old discoveries that still resonate with me. In the process, I discover more deeply the musician I am in this moment."

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein is a searching and inventive artist who is motivated by a desire to find the musical core of every work she approaches. The Independent praises the "majestic originality of her vision" and NPR reports, "She compels the listener to follow her in a journey of discovery filled with unscheduled detours . . . She's actively listening to every note she plays, and the result is a wonderfully expressive interpretation." The New York Times reported, "An utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation, Ms. Dinnerstein brings her own pianistic expressivity to the Goldberg Variations, probing each variation as if it were something completely new." Slate magazine raved, "Dinnerstein is a throwback to such high priestesses of music as Wanda Landowska and Myra Hess . . . [She] is touring. Go hear her, and get religion. And if you can't, there's always the record." 

The three albums Ms. Dinnerstein has released since Bach's Goldberg Variations – The Berlin Concert (Telarc), Bach: A Strange Beauty (Sony), and Something Almost Being Said (Sony) – have also topped the classical charts, with Bach: A Strange Beauty making the Billboard Top 200, which compiles the entire music industry's sales of albums in all genres. Ms. Dinnerstein was the bestselling instrumentalist of 2011 on the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart and was included in NPR's 2011 100 Favorite Songs from all genres.

In spring 2013, Simone Dinnerstein and singer-songwriter Tift Merritt will release an album together on Sony called Night, a unique collaboration uniting classical, folk, and rock worlds, exploring common terrain and uncovering new musical landscapes.Night features original songs written for the duo by Brad Mehldau and Patty Griffin, as well as classical selections and Merritt's own work. The Washington Post wrote of one of their early performances together: "Merritt blew on a pair of harmonicas to add a taste of hickory to Dinnerstein's take on Schubert's 'Nacht und Träume.' During a medley of reworked old-timey folk songs, Dinnerstein got off her stool and under the hood of her pristine Steinway Grand and hammered its strings like a dulcimer to accompany Merritt's strumming of a beat-up acoustic guitar."

Other highlights of the current season include Ms. Dinnerstein's debuts in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; her debuts in Leipzig at the Gewandhaus and in Toulouse as part of the Piano aux Jacobins festival; the world premiere of Nico Muhly's You Can't Get There From Here at Symphony Hall in Boston; and her third return engagement at the Berlin Philharmonie.