American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has fast been gaining international attention as a commanding and charismatic artist, and as one of the most compelling women pianists performing today. Since being featured by The New York Times as an artist “poised for a breakthrough” in September 2006, Ms. Dinnerstein has performed to a sold-out audience at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s prestigious Accolades series, debuted with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein and signed an exclusive recording contract with Telarc International, which will release her much-anticipated recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations worldwide in August 2007.

Highlights of the current season include her debut recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris and recitals at Philadelphia’s Bach Festival and the Copenhagen Music Festival.  Ms. Dinnerstein will play a recital at the Moselfestwochen in Germany in June 2007 and will play at the opening gala concert of the “Metropolitan Museum of Art in Berlin” exhibition at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie.  During the 2007-2008 season, she will give debut recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie and at the National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius.  In New York City she will give recitals on the People’s Symphony series at Town Hall and on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series.   Ms. Dinnerstein will also tour with the Dresden Philharmonic under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and with the Czech Philharmonic under Zdenek Macal. She will open the concert season of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in Jerusalem under Leon Botstein and make her debut with the Württembergische Kammerorchester Heilbronn.   With duo partner Zuill Bailey she will perform Beethoven’s five sonatas for piano and cello at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

After Ms. Dinnerstein’s triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in November 2005, The New York Times described her interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations as “a thoughtfully conceived, thoroughly modern performance that seemed to take into account the development of Western art music since Bach . . . an individual, compelling performance that so completely evoked the image of a journey, that Schubert’s Winterreise kept coming in mind.”   Harris Goldsmith wrote in a feature article in The American Record Guide that it was “a thrilling roller coaster ride with many wonderful surprises in store… her harmonic intensity left an indelible impression on this mesmerized listener.”

As a winner of the Astral Artistic Services National Auditions, Ms. Dinnerstein appeared as both concerto soloist and in recital at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.  She received the Classical Recording Foundation Award for 2006 and 2007 for her recordings with cellist Zuill Bailey of Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello on the Delos label.  The first volume was released in October 2006 and volume two is scheduled for release in the spring of 2008.

Ms. Dinnerstein has enjoyed critical acclaim in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Gramophone, The American Record Guide and Fanfare.  Her recording sessions for the Goldberg Variations with Grammy award-winning producer Adam Abeshouse was the subject of a feature article by David Patrick Stearns in The Philadelphia Inquirer.  She has made live appearances on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and WNYC’s New Sounds and Soundcheck, and can regularly be heard on NPR affiliates across the country.  In February 2007 she gave a live broadcast recital on WFMT in Chicago.

Since 1996 Ms. Dinnerstein has played concerts throughout the United States for the Piatigorsky Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing classical music to non-traditional venues.  Amongst the places she has played are nursing homes, schools and community centers.  Most notably, Ms. Dinnerstein gave the first classical music performance in the Louisiana state prison system when she played at the Avoyelles Correctional Center.

Ms. Dinnerstein is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she was a student of Peter Serkin.  Among her many scholarships and awards at Juilliard were the William Petschek Piano Scholarship, the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship and the Chopin Award. She also studied with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music and in London with Maria Curcio, the distinguished pupil of Artur Schnabel.  For two summers, she was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Ms. Dinnerstein lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and five-year-old son.