June 9: GRAMMY-Nominated Brooklyn Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performs Bach and Philip Glass in Free Central Park Concert at Naumburg Bandshell
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn by Grayson Dantzic available in high resolution here.
GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein at Naumburg Bandshell
with Baroklyn and CONCORA
Performing Music from New Albums Complicité and Hourglass
Presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Tuesday, June 9, 2026 at 7:30pm
Naumburg Bandshell on the Concert Ground in Central Park
Near W. 72nd St., Mid-Park
Free and Open to the Public | More Information
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity” – The Washington Post
PLUS Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s New Philip Glass Album Hourglass Out June 5 on Naïve
Review downloads & CDs available upon request.
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
New York, NY – On Tuesday, June 9, 2026 at 7:30pm, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein –described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance” – performs a free concert at Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park (mid-park at 72nd St.) presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts. Dinnerstein will perform music by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass from her newest albums Complicitéand Hourglass (out June 5 on naïve) with Baroklyn (the string ensemble she founded and directs) and CONCORA – Connecticut Choral Artists. The performance will be broadcast live and streamed on WQXR for those unable to attend in person.
Known for her distinctive musical voice and her interpretations of music by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass, Dinnerstein sees a natural affinity between the music of the two composers. The resonance can be found in the two composers’ deeply polyphonic visions, quest for the absolute independence of each line, and an abiding concern for the singing quality of musical phrases.
She says, “When I think about the music of Philip Glass, I think about time. The music is intricate and polyphonic. It’s layered, with patterns that keep shifting in the subtlest of ways. Though the harmonies are clearly important in the musical narrative, Glass’s music is multi-linear in a way that evokes the music of Bach. It is music on the horizontal, as opposed to the vertical. If anything, it is circular music.”
Dinnerstein’s concert in Central Park includes Herr Gott, BWV 617 by J.S. Bach; The Hours by Philip Glass; Cantata 9, Es ist das Heil uns Kommen her, BWV 9 (1734), (with continuo realizations by Philip Lasser) by J.S. Bach; Three Movements from Cantatas 99, 22, and 182 by J.S. Bach, featuring CONCORA; and In the Air, a recomposition by Philip Lasser, of J.S. Bach’s Air on the G String. Dinnerstein will be conducting the cantatas and for the rest of the program, she will be directing the artists from the piano.
On June 5, 2026, just before her performance in New York City, Dinnerstein releases Hourglass –– her first album on naïve since signing with the label earlier this year. The new recording features Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours and his TirolConcerto for Piano and Orchestra (Piano Concerto No. 1) with Baroklyn. The album is another milestone in her close artistic association with the renowned composer, who celebrates his 90th birthday in January 2027. The first single, The Hours, is out now–listen here. Read the album press release here.
Dinnerstein says of her group Baroklyn, “Baroklyn is a group of string players which I lead from the piano. We’re a community that shares the artistic vision that is most important to me, that music should be creative and new. Rehearsal is important to us, and I’ve been influenced by theater practice in which we listen to each other and pass musical ideas and phrases within the group. We rehearse and perform in a semi-circle around the piano and I rearrange parts to emphasize lines, voices and imitative qualities to create a sense of dialogue.” The ensemble’s name is a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, Dinnerstein’s home borough.
More about Simone Dinnerstein: Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made fifteen albums, all of which have topped the Billboard classical charts. Her first fourteen albums were recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer Adam Abeshouse. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic,and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy. Her recent recording Complicité (Supertrain Records, 2025), is her first all-Bach album in over ten years and features Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano and Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore along with the string ensemble Simone founded and directs, Baroklyn. Recorded with producer Silas Brown, the album also includes composer Philip Lasser’s continuo realizations and recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String.
In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording, Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera and the Cleveland Orchestra.
The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: On Tuesday, June 9, 2026 at 7:30pm, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein – described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance” – performs a free concert at Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park (mid-park at 72nd St.) presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts. Dinnerstein will perform music by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass from her newest albums Complicité and Hourglass (out June 5 on naïve) with Baroklyn, the string ensemble she founded and directs, and CONCORA – Connecticut Choral Artists.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Baroklyn and CONCORA
What: Music by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass
When: Tuesday, June 9, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: Naumburg Bandshell, on the Concert Ground, Central Park (72nd St., Mid-Park)
More Information:https://naumburgconcerts.org/upcoming/baroklyn