Simone Dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein first made a splash with MCO audiences in 2018, when she premiered a concerto by her collaborator Philip Glass. While this connection speaks volumes about her towering talent and reputation, it’s as an interpreter of the great Bs that this artist of “strikingly original ideas” (Washington Post) is best known. She’s “one of the great Beethoven pianists of our time” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (New York Times). You can hear just how unique in her breathtaking NPR Tiny Desk Concert and at this MCO concert.
Awadagin Pratt
Before he was 25, Awadagin Pratt became the first African American pianist to win the Naumburg International Piano Competition, one of the world’s oldest music competitions. Since then, he’s performed with nearly every major orchestra in the US, at the White House, and, that great winner of young hearts and minds, Sesame Street. Awadagin famously earned degrees from the Peabody Conservatory in conducting, violin, and piano. He’s a brilliant beacon in today’s music world, one of the “great American pianists” (WGBH), and we’re thrilled to work with him again.