Birch Festival Presents: Simone Dinnerstein, Alexis Pia Gerlach, and Yevgeny Kutik

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is presented by the Birch Festival alongside her longtime friend and collaborator, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach, in a rare performance of all three of Bach’s Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord. Written in the 1740s, these works are gems of the chamber repertoire and it is uncommon to hear them presented together in a single afternoon. Alexis, an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, has been acclaimed for her deeply sensitive and compelling interpretations both as a soloist and chamber musician.

Yevgeny Kutik will join Simone for Mozart’s Sonata in E minor for Violin and Piano, K. 304. Written in Paris in 1778 shortly after the death of Mozart’s mother, it is an introspective and vulnerably beautiful work. To round out the afternoon, Simone will perform Philip Glass’s Mad Rush, a mesmerizing piano solo originally composed for the Dalai Lama’s first public address in North America.