March 23 - Myra Foundation Presents: Concerts in the Galleries with GRAMMY®- Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Violinist Rebecca Fischer
L-R Violinist Rebecca Fischer, Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Myra Foundation Presents:
Concerts in the Galleries with GRAMMY®- Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Violinist Rebecca Fischer
Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 2pm
North Dakota Museum of Art | 261 Centennial Drive | Grand Forks, ND
Tickets and More information
www.simonedinnerstein.com | www.rebeccafischerviolin.com
Grand Forks, ND – On Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 2pm GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” and violinist Rebecca Fisher, described by the Boston Music Intelligencer as having “beautiful tone and nuanced phrasing,” will perform in the Myra Foundation Presents: Concerts in the Galleries series at the North Dakota Museum of Art (261 Centennial Drive).
Dinnerstein and Fischer will collaborate on a program of stylistically diverse and intricate works by several different composers, including Dissolve, O My Heart (2010) by Missy Mazzoli; Sonata for Violin and Keyboard No, 4 in C Minor by J.S. Bach; Encore from Tokyo (1975; transcribed by Uwe Karcher) by Keith Jarrett; and Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Each a celebrated and prolific performer in their own right, Dinnerstein and Fischer have a well established connection through musical collaboration, which spans many years. Most notably, Fischer is the concert master of Baroklyn, a string ensemble Simone Dinnerstein founded and directs – often conducting from the piano – which specializes in the music of Bach. The two musicians will share the galleries of the North Dakota Museum of Art for a performance that features their unified musicianship in classic works by Bach and Beethoven, as well as polished displays of their solo artistry through the modern day works of Missy Mazzoli and Keith Jarrett. Strings Magazine has described Fischer’s performance of Mazzoli’s Dissolve, O My Heart as “quite beautiful.” Dinnerstein’s performances of Jarrett’s Encore from Tokyo – a work that was originally an improvisation – have earned her lively standing ovations, with Dinnerstein noting that she finds Jarrett’s music “fascinating” as she has reflected on “how to make this piece [her] own” over time.
As first violinist for the Chiara Quartet, Rebecca Fischer participated in a Chamber Music America Rural Residency at the North Dakota Museum of Art, just as her career was unfolding. Living, performing and teaching in Grand Forks for two years, she helped launch a revival of interest in chamber music and stringed instruments that has re-invigorated the music community in the Red River Valley.
About Rebecca Fischer: Violinist Rebecca Fischer is sought after as a highly expressive, intuitive performer of solo, chamber music and chamber orchestra repertoire. Garnering attention for her compelling programs of solo violin and singing violinist music, Fischer has premiered solo works by composers Lisa Bielawa, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Mathew Fuerst, Augusta Read Thomas, Byron Au Yong, Pierre Jalbert and others. Recent solo recital engagements include Columbia University’s Miller Theater Pop-Up series, The Stone, and the University of Oregon. Fischer is also a member of The Afield, a multidisciplinary collaboration with visual artist/writer Anthony Hawley combining new and original compositions for violin, voice, and electronics with video and other media. The Afield has performed at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe, Carnegie Hall, and the Atlanta Contemporary Museum, and has published work in Art Papers.
First-violinist of the Chiara String Quartet for eighteen years until the group’s final season in 2018, Fischer recorded and performed numerous works by heart, held residencies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Harvard University, and premiered many major new works by composers such as Gabriela Lena Frank and Philip Glass. Performance highlights include the complete Bartók Quartets by heart at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, several complete Beethoven quartet cycles, and collaborations with such artists as the Juilliard and Saint Lawrence Quartets, Roger Tapping, Robert Levin, and the electronic duo Matmos.
Rebecca. Fischer has recorded for Azica Records (the complete string quartets of Brahms and Bartók) and New Amsterdam Records (the string quartets of Jefferson Friedman, a Grammy-nominated album). She is the Executive Director and Director of Senior Camp at Greenwood Music Camp, where she has been on the faculty since 2006. During the year she teaches violin and chamber music at the Mannes School of Music and serves as co-chair of the string department. She. holds degrees from Columbia University (B.A.) and The Juilliard School (M.M., A.D.). Her book of personal essays The Sound of Memory: Themes from a Violinist’s Life (Mad Creek Books, the Ohio University State Press) was released in April 2022. The “intimate and vulnerable” (Strings Magazine) collection has been featured on WNYC, and Fischer has given readings of her “personal, absorbing response to the author’s practical and creative journey” (Strad Magazine) at Rice University and the New School. For more information, visit www.rebeccafischerviolin.com.
About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
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 thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts and were recorded by 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.
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 Piano Sonata No. 2. 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. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. 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 more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY-nominated® pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance” and violinist Rebecca Fischer, who is recognized for “beautiful tone and nuanced phrasing” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), are presented by the Myra Foundation as part of the Concerts in the Galleries Series at the North Dakota Museum of Art. The concert program will include Dissolve, O My Heart by Missy Mazzoli (2010); Sonata for Violin and Keyboard No, 4 in C Minor by J.S. Bach; Encore from Tokyo by Keith Jarrett, transcribed by Uwe Karcher (1975); and Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 10 in G Major, Op. 96 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Violinist Rebecca Fischer
Presented by The Myra Foundation as part of the Concerts in the Galleries Series
What: Music by Missy Mazzoli, J.S. Bach, Keith Jarrett (arr. Uwe Karcher), and Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 2pm
Where: North Dakota Museum of Art, 261 Centennial Drive Grand Forks, ND 58202
Tickets: www.ndmoa.com/concerts-in-the-galleries
More information: Brian Lofthus, North Dakota Museum of Art, 701-777-4195