Simone Dinnerstein Virtual Performances

Simone Dinnerstein (photograph by Tanya Braganti, courtesy of Jensen Artists)

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein has announced plans for a series of six concerts between today and the beginning of next year, all of which will be presented in cyberspace. Three of those performances will be based on her Orange Mountain Music album A Character of Quiet, released this past September. This album consisted of a performance of Franz Schubert’s final piano sonata, D. 960 in B-flat major, preceded by three of the solo piano études composed by Philip Glass. One of other programs will present the world premiere of a composition by Richard Danielpour. Another will present a variety of perspectives on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach; and the last of the concerts will survey selections by Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, Erik Satie, and François Couperin. The full schedule, presented in chronological order (all times given in Pacific Time), is as follows:

Saturday, October 31, 11 a.m.: Dumbarton Oaks will stream the first performance based on A Character of Quiet. Dinnerstein was recorded playing these selections in the Music Room. The video will be accessible through 11 a.m. on Friday, November 6. Admission will be $20, processed through an Eventbrite event page. Once admission has been processed, electronic mail will be sent providing the hyperlink through which the performance may be attended.

Saturday, November 14, 6:30 p.m.: Dinnerstein is currently an Artistic Partner of the Boulder Philharmonic. This past September they performed a program entitled The Beauty of Bach in the Brungard Aviation hangar at Boulder Municipal Airport before an audience practicing social distancing precautions. The program will begin with an arrangement by Philip Lasser of the “Erbarme dich, mein Gott, um meiner Zähren Willen” (have mercy, my God, for the sake of my tenacity) aria from Bach’s BWV 244 setting of the Passion text from the Gospel of Matthew. Dinnerstein will then present the BWV 1067 orchestral suite in B minor. She will conduct the BWV 1052 piano concerto in D minor from the keyboard, followed by a performance of the BWV 1050 “Brandenburg” (fifth) concerto in D major, for which she will be joined by flutist Christina Jennings and violinist Charles Wetherbee. Admission will be $40, processed by the event page for this concert on the Boulder Philharmonic Web site. Presumably, ticket-holders will subsequently be provided with the hyperlink through which the performance may be attended.

Sunday, November 15, 11 a.m.: The second performance based on A Character of Quiet will be streamed live from the Union Arts Center in Sparkill, New York. The concert will be presented by ArtsRock, hosted by Dinnerstein’s longtime friend Robin Quivers, co-host of The Howard Stern Show. The video will be accessible through November 20. Tickets are being sold for $10, $20, and $50 per household and may be purchased through the event page on the ArtsRock Web site. Again, ticket-holders should expect to receive the hyperlink for attendance after the payment has been processed.

Sunday, December 6, 2 p.m.: Danielpour’s An American Mosaic will receive its world premiere under the auspices of the Oregon Bach Festival, which commissioned the composition. The work is a set of fifteen miniatures for solo piano, each of which commemorates segments of the American population that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including parents, caretakers and those who have lost their lives to the virus. As of this writing, specifics about admission and tickets have not yet been announced. Presumably they will be posted on the Festival’s event page in the near future.

Tuesday, December 15, 4 p.m.: Dinnerstein will return to New York City for the third and final performance based on A Character of Quiet. She will be filmed live, and the recording will then be streamed through the Live from Columbia concert series entitled Pop-Ups in the Lantern. The performance will take place at the Miller Theatre of Columbia University. The streaming of this offering will be presented free of charge and will be streamed through the Pop-Ups in the Lantern Web site.

Friday, January 8, 5 p.m.: Dinnerstein will begin the New Year with a solo recital recorded in the Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. This will be an “all new” program, since none of the selections were included in programs for the above events. Schumann will be featured with performances of his Opus 18 “Arabesque” in C major and the Opus 16 Kreisleriana cycle. There will also be a Glass selection earlier than his études, “Mad Rush.” A “French side” to the program will offer the third of Satie’s “Gnossienne” compositions and two pieces from Couperin’s Pièces de clavecin, “Les Barricades Mystérieuses” (the mysterious barricades) and “Le tic-toc-choc, ou Les maillotins” (the tapping or the hammers). $20 pays for a 24-hour rental of the video stream of the performances. For $25 the view has 48-hour access along with a question-and-answer session following the performances. A Web page has been set up for purchasing tickets, and the video feed will be available until 5 p.m. on January 10.