Simone Dinnerstein and the string ensemble she directs will perform at the University of Hartford in West Hartford on Oct. 23.

Submitted

GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn– the string ensemble Dinnerstein founded and directs will perform on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in Millard Auditorium at the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave.

Alongside Dinnerstein and Baroklyn, CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists) will also be performing and for this collaborative effort, Dinnerstein will be making her conducting debut,  leading everyone in performances of Cantata BWV 9 and movements from J.S. Bach’s Cantatas 99, 22, and 182. The concert program will feature performances of music Complicité, the new album from Dinnerstein and Baroklyn, released May 30 on Supertrain Records.

Of the album’s title, Dinnerstein says, “Complicité is a term that I first heard from my son, who studied the teachings of the French theatre practitioner, Jacques Lecoq. Three important ideas that Lecoq communicated to his students were le jeu (playfulness), complicité (togetherness), and disponsibilité (openness). I was so intrigued by these ideas, and the different exercises that my son learned in order to cultivate these skills within ensemble acting, that I decided to try a Lecoq approach with my own musical ensemble, Baroklyn.”

Simone Dinnerstein is well known for her distinctive musical voice and for her expressive performances of music by J.S. Bach. She 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.”

Her new album with Baroklyn, Complicité, includes Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s arrangement of Bach’s chorale Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf, BWV 617; Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053; J.S. Bach: Der Leib war in der Erden, BWV 161 (arr. Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn); Bach’s Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust with continuo realization by Philip Lasser, featuring mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano; and In the Air, Lasser’s recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String.

The deeply felt recording has been warmly received by listeners – Complicité has already been streamed over 1 million times. Gramophone describes Dinnerstein’s performance as “full of life, engagement and detail.” Of the new album, Textura writes: “Not only are the performances terrific, the music impresses for being more than faithful replications of existing scores but instead arresting re-imaginings that take Bach’s pieces into dynamic new realms.” Read the album press release here and listen here.

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