Simone Dinnerstein, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Katherine Needleman, and Baroklyn
On Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 8pm, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein – described by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic” – performs with Baroklyn, the string ensemble she founded and directs, in music from their recent Bach album Complicité.
Presented by Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson Building – Coolidge Auditorium (10 1st Street SE) Washington D.C., the concert also features mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and oboist Katherine Needleman with Dinnerstein and 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.”
For her most recent performance at the Library of Congress in February 2024, Dinnerstein celebrated the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the U.S. Air Force Band. Her October 29 performance commemorates the centennial anniversary of the Library of Congress’s Concert Series. In celebration of the milestone, Dinnerstein will begin the concert program performing a solo piano arrangement of Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, the same chorale that opened the LOC’s concert series in October 1925, when it was performed on the organ. In a special letter to organist Lynnwood Farnam–the first musician to play in the Coolidge Auditorium–that the Library of Congress shared with Dinnerstein, the message describes an approach to programming that is very similar to that which Dinnerstein applies to her performances – thinking of a concert feeling like a “service” (as it’s put in the letter), with one piece continuing into the next without applause. Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s performance thoughtfully connects the concert series’ past with the present.
Letter from the Library of Congress written by Music Division Chief Carl Engel
Following the opening of the concert, the program will feature music from Complicité, including 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; 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.
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.
Coinciding with the album’s release, Dinnerstein spoke with NPR’s Morning Edition about the project, as well as about her experience with performance anxiety and the way that playing with the sheet music on an iPad has resolved this for her. Of her work with Baroklyn, she said, “It’s like a sharing circle, and you hear everybody’s individuality, their individual sound as it gets passed around.” Listen to the NPR interview here.
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.”