Estonian-born Conductor Kristjan Järvi moved to New York as a child. He studied piano with Nina Svetlanova at the Manhattan School of Music where he also founded the award-winning Absolute Ensemble. After graduate conducting studies at the University of Michigan, Järvi was Assistant-Conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He went on to take up the posts of Chief Conductor and Music Director of Norrlands Opera and Symphony Orchestra, Sweden (2000-2004) and Tonkünstler Orchestra, Vienna (2004-2009). Kristjan Järvi is also Artistic Advisor to the Basel Chamber Orchestra. Järvi’s passion for new music has resulted in the commission of more than 100 works by composers including Arvo Pärt, HK Gruber, Erkki-Sven Tüur and Daniel Schnyder. He has recorded more than 20 albums for which he has received a list of accolades, including the German Record Critics Prize and a Swedish Grammy. In 2007 Deutsche Bank awarded Kristjan Järvi the “Deutsche Bank Priz e” at Musikfest Bremen in recognition of outstanding musical achievement and artistic vision.

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Founded by Kristjan Järvi in 1993, Absolute Ensemble has become one of the foremost chamber Ensembles in the world. Founded on the premise of “Music without Borders”, the ensemble seeks to bridge gaps between all genres in music. Absolute Ensemble has an expansive touring schedule to all corners of the globe, as well as maintaining both its New York presence and a European base at Musikfest Bremen, Germany. In 2007 Kristjan Järvi and Absolute Ensemble were awarded the Deutsche Bank Prize at Musikfest Bremen for outstanding musical achievement. Absolute Ensemble’s previous 8 recordings have received the German Record Critic’s Prize and a Grammy Nomination. The Ensemble members combine the roles of performer, composer, arranger and improviser to promote a truly unique approach to making music. This approach is taught annually at the Bremen University for Music and Art “Absolute Academy”.



Music composed by Gene Pritsker, Charles Coleman, Daniel Schnyder, Mike Block and Matt Herskowitz.

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has fast been gaining international attention since making a triumphant New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005, performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Recent and upcoming performances include Ms. Dinnerstein’s recital debuts at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, the Aspen and Ravinia festivals, in Cologne, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Vilnius, Bremen, Rome, and Lisbon, and at the Stuttgart Bach Festival; as well as debut performances with the Dresden Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble, the Baltimore Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra. Last year she performed on the People’s Symphony series at Town Hall and on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series in New York, and this year she will perform her third recital at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In July 2009, she will make her debut with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.

In August 2007, Ms. Dinnerstein released her debut solo CD on Telarc, a recording of the Goldberg Variations which earned the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Classical Chart during its first week of sales. The disc appeared on “Best of 2007” lists including those of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Time Out New York, several radio stations, iTunes “Editor’s Choice Best Classical,” Amazon.com Best CDs of 2007, and Barnes & Noble's Top 5 Debut CDs of 2007. In September 2008, the recording received the prestigious Diapason d'Or Award.

The New York Times reported, "An utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation, Ms. Dinnerstein brings her own pianistic expressivity to the Goldberg Variations, probing each variation as if it were something completely new." Slate.com raved, “Dinnerstein is a throwback to such high priestesses of music as Wanda Landowska and Myra Hess . . . [She] is touring. Go hear her, and get religion. And if you can’t, there’s always the record.” In October 2007, Ms. Dinnerstein gave her sold-out debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall performing the Goldberg Variations, after which The Guardian proclaimed, “In Dinnerstein's accomplished hands, there was no doubt that [Bach’s Goldberg Variations] are the province of the true musician rather than the mere pianist.”

In November 2007, Ms. Dinnerstein made her recital debut at the Berlin Philharmonie, performing Bach’s French Suite No. 5, Philip Lasser’s Variations on a Bach Chorale, and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32, Op. 111. The concert was recorded live, and was released by Telarc in August 2008. Of the disc, which also ranked No. 1 on the Billboard Chart during its first week of sales, Gramophone reported, “this second CD of a Berlin recital provides ample evidence of gifts above and beyond the ordinary.” The Washington Post wrote, “Lasser . . . uses his command of harmony to build moments of steely percussion and misty impressionism far removed from Bach's generally courtly sound. Dinnerstein makes this evolution feel natural as the sound fabric expands and grows more diffuse, culminating in moments of grandeur and poetry.” And Diapason raved, “Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 111 could have been a cause for concern. Simone Dinnerstein quickly sets our mind at rest with the Maestoso—both lively and clearly articulated. The Arietta captivates with its most welcome naked simplicity, whereas the variations proceed with implacable logic all the way to the closing trills.”

Over the past two years, Ms. Dinnerstein has been featured in Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, Classic FM Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, “O” The Oprah Magazine, Time.com, Slate.com, The Sunday (London) Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, among others, and has appeared on radio programs including BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, NPR’s Morning Edition, Public Radio International’s Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, American Public Media’s Performance Today, Minnesota Public Radio, XM Radio’s Classical Confidential, as part of the news on SIRIUS Satellite Radio’s The Howard Stern Show, and on national television in Germany.

As a winner of the Astral Artistic Services National Auditions, Ms. Dinnerstein appeared as both concerto soloist and in recital at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. She received the Classical Recording Foundation Award for 2006 and 2007 for her recordings with cellist Zuill Bailey of Beethoven’s complete works for piano and cello.

Since 1996 Ms. Dinnerstein has played concerts throughout the United States for the Piatigorsky Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing classical music to non-traditional venues. Amongst the places she has played are nursing homes, schools and community centers. Most notably, Ms. Dinnerstein gave the first classical music performance in the Louisiana state prison system when she played at the Avoyelles Correctional Center.

Ms. Dinnerstein is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she was a student of Peter Serkin. She also studied with Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music and in London with Maria Curcio, the distinguished pupil of Artur Schnabel. For two summers, she was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center.