Born in New York City, she studied at the Manhattan School of Music, graduated from the Juilliard School, where she was a student of Peter Serkin, and was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. Her breakthrough came with her 2005 New York debut at Carnegie Hall debut, where she played Bach's Goldberg Variations. Her 2007 recording of the piece on the Telarc label went to the top of the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart in the first week of its commercial release. It received numerous critical accolades including a Diapason d'Or Award and a place on many prestigious "Best of the Year" lists. Her second recording, of a live 2007 recital in Berlin featuring works by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, and American composer Philip Lasser, was released in 2008 and also shot to the number one spot on the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart in its first week. Her third recording, Bach: A Strange Beauty, was released on Sony Classical in 2011.

Dinnerstein has developed an impressive international career both as a recitalist and concerto soloist. She has performed recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Aspen and Ravinia Festivals, and in Paris, Vienna, Cologne, Stuttgart, and Rome, among others. Orchestras with which she has performed include the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Atlanta Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Tokyo Symphony. She has gained wide public exposure through profiles in a broad range of print, broadcast, and web-based media, including Gramophone, The New York Times, O The Oprah Magazine, The Guardian, Time Magazine, NPR's Morning Edition, the Howard Stern Show, and Slate.com. In addition to her traditional concert and recording career, Dinnerstein has devoted considerable time to volunteering as a performer in unconventional venues such as nursing homes, public schools, and state prisons.