Resonate

While most musicians develop a career based on a set of challenging repertoire, it only took one piece to propel pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s name into the limelight: Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations.

 The challenging 90-minute piece is variation after variation, based on a 32-bar ground bass and incorporating a series of nine canons that eventually leads to a climax. Basically, the piece is mammoth. Not exactly a common choice for someone’s Carnegie Hall debut, but Dinnerstein accomplished the feat in 2005 and received an outstanding review from The New York Times.

Dinnerstein, who is in her mid-30s, is currently touring the world performing her signature piece, but she took time away from it to perform Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” on Saturday at the El Paso Chamber Music Festival in Texas.

A video on Dinnerstein’s Web site features her performing the “Goldberg” Variations and discussing her perspective on her music. But I found her outlook on being a mother particularly interesting:

“It’s a challenge for all women, whatever profession you’re in, to work and have a kid,” she says. ”And what’s interesting for me is that when I finally did have my son, that everything picked up with my career, from the moment that he was born.”

 It’s great to see that a mother can have a thriving solo career. My question is, what does the father do?