Saturday, March 21 at 7 p.m. —RANDOLPH—Chandler Center for the Arts will welcome internationally acclaimed pianist Simone Dinnerstein back to Chandler Music Hall at 71 N. Main St. for a solo concert featuring works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Philip Glass, and Franz Schubert.
Dinnerstein, whose recordings have consistently topped the Billboard classical charts, has built an international reputation for interpretations that blend clarity, emotional depth, and thoughtful programming. The Washington Post has described her as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.”
Raised in Brooklyn, New York, Dinnerstein began playing piano at age seven and later studied at the Juilliard School. Her career took an unconventional path after graduation, as she spent several years performing freelance concerts in New York without major management or competition accolades. Her breakthrough came in 2007 when she self-funded a recording of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” after being unable to secure a recording contract. The album was released on Telarc and quickly rose to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart, earning widespread critical praise and landing on multiple “Best of 2007” lists, including those from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker.
Since that release, Dinnerstein has performed with major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. Her performances have taken her to renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, the Seoul Arts Center, and the Sydney Opera House.
Composer Philip Glass wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3 specifically for Dinnerstein, a work co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Her most recent recording, “Complicité” (Supertrain Records, 2025), marks her first all-Bach album in more than a decade and features the string ensemble she founded and directs, Baroklyn.
Dinnerstein is also known for bringing classical music into nontraditional settings. For nearly three decades she has performed across the United States with the Piatigorsky Foundation, presenting concerts in rural and underserved communities. She also gave the first-ever piano recital in the Louisiana state prison system at the Avoyelles Correctional Center. In 2009, she founded Neighborhood Classics, a concert series hosted in New York City public schools that raises funds for music education programs.
Dinnerstein has a long relationship with Chandler Center for the Arts, where she has performed more than a dozen times. She has also appeared in fundraising performances supporting the restoration of Chandler’s Steinway grand piano.
The March 21 program connects three composers known for music that combines structural clarity with emotional depth. Bach’s Inventions, originally composed as teaching pieces, remain beloved for their elegance and ingenuity. Dinnerstein recorded the complete Inventions and Sinfonias for Sony Classical in 2014.
The program also includes Philip Glass’s “Étude No. 2” and “Étude No. 16” from his collection of twenty piano études. Dinnerstein has described the latter as having a syncopated dance-like rhythm that evolves emotionally even as the musical material remains deceptively simple.
The concert will conclude with Franz Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960, one of the most significant works in the piano repertoire. Written only weeks before Schubert’s death in 1828, it was the final piece he completed for solo piano.
Tickets range from $11 to $57, with children under 12 admitted free. A reception will follow the concert.
For more information, visit: chandler-arts.org.