01/04/12

Story by Diane Carroll, 913-469-3425

Simone Dinnerstein

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein to share classical works at JCCC concert

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, whose recordings have topped the classical charts, will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, in the Carlsen Center's Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College.

Tickets, which are $35 and $25, can be purchased through the college box office at 913-469-4445 or at www.jccc.edu/TheSeries.

Providing a pre-concert talk will be Dr. William Everett, professor of musicology at the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri-Kansas City. He will speak at 7 p.m. in the Recital Hall.

When Telarc released Dinnerstein's Goldberg Variations in 2007, she became a sensation in the classical world virtually overnight. The Telarc recording zoomed to No. 1 on the US Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales.

Dinnerstein's follow-up album, The Berlin Concert, also hit that top spot, as did her latest album, Bach – A Strange Beauty. The latter one, released in January 2011, also made the Billboard Top 200, which compiles the entire music industry's top-selling albums in all genres.

Besides appearing at JCCC, Dinnerstein will perform on Thursday, Jan. 26, at Kansas State University in Manhattan. For details, visit www.k-state.edu/mccain. And on Friday, Jan. 27, she will appear at the Stiefel Theatre for the Performing Arts in Salina. Visit www.stiefeltheatre.org for more information.

Dinnerstein is expected to release a new album called Something Almost Being Said: The Music of Bach and Schubert on Jan. 31. Both the album and the concerts in Kansas will include Bach's Partita No. 2 in C Minor and Bach's Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major.

Dinnerstein's work has been praised in numerous media outlets.

The San Francisco Chronicle called Bach – A Strange Beauty "unadorned but profound bliss" and the Washington Post said, "Dinnerstein's readings may be said to plumb these works' genuine depths… poised, elegant, wonderfully played."

Dinnerstein lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her husband and their son.  She graduated from The Julliard School and also studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and in London with Maria Curcio.

Dinnerstein's performance schedule has taken her around the world. Recent and upcoming performances include her recital debuts at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Vienna Konzerthaus and London's Wigmore Hall. She also has performed with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic and the Czech Philharmonic, to name a few.

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