The American pianist, Simone Andréa 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 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.



As a winner of the Astral Artistic Services National Auditions, Simone Dinnerstein appeared as both concerto soloist and in recital at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Since 1996 she has played concerts across the country 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, she gave the first classical music performance in the Louisiana state prison system when she played at the Avoyelles Correctional Center.



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. She has enjoyed critical acclaim in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Gramophone Magazine, BBC Music Magazine, Classic FM Magazine, Piano Magazine, O The Oprah Magazine, Slate.com, The American Record Guide, and Fanfare. 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 and classical music radio stations throughout the United States.



After Simone 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 J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) 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." Since being featured by The New York Times as an artist "poised for a breakthrough" in September 2006, she 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.



Recent highlights include her debut recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris and recitals at the Bach Festival of Philadelphia and the Copenhagen Music Festival, as well as the opening concert of the Moselfestwochen in Germany in June 2007. During the 2007-2008 season, Simone Dinnerstein 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. She will tour with the Dresden Philharmonic under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Zdenìk Mácal. In addition, she will perform with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in Jerusalem, and will make her debut with the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn. With duo partner Zuill Bailey she performed L.v. 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.



Simone Dinnerstein received the Classical Recording Foundation Award for 2006 and 2007 for her recordings with cellist Zuill Bailey of L.v. 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. Telarc released her much-anticipated recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) worldwide in August 2007. The CD earned the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales, and was called "precisely the kind of playing that the early 21st century most needs, infused as it is with a deep and pervasive sense of beauty and tenderness of heart which is often profoundly affecting," by Piano Magazine.



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