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Pianist
Jonathan Biss launched his career in the late 1990s with appearances as a soloist with the
Baltimore Symphony and several other prominent national ensembles. While he has generally favored standard-repertory works, he has ventured into contemporary works with compositions by
John Corigliano,
Leon Kirchner, and others.
Biss was born on September 18, 1980, in Bloomington, Indiana. He comes from a distinguished family of string players: his grandmother was
Raya Garbousova, the cellist who inspired
Samuel Barber to compose his Cello Concerto, his mother is the well-known violinist
Miriam Fried, and his father is violinist/violist Paul Biss. Young
Jonathan took his first piano lessons at the age of 6 from teacher Karen Taylor. At age 11, he began studies at Indiana University with
Evelyne Brancart, and then three years later, won the concerto competitions held by the
Indianapolis and Bloomington Symphony Orchestras, two ensembles with whom
Biss then appeared in performances of the
Mendelssohn G minor Piano Concerto. In 1997,
Biss concluded his instruction with
Brancart and began studying with
Leon Fleisher at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Biss appeared that same year at Wolf Trap with
Isaac Stern, and there, he accepted the Shouse Debut Artist Award from him. The following year,
Biss began appearing as soloist with several of the more important American orchestras, including the
Baltimore and
Seattle Symphony Orchestras, and the
Buffalo and
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras.
In 1999,
Biss was presented with an Avery Fisher career grant. He achieved career-boosting triumphs with his New York appearances in 2000, debuting as a soloist with
Kurt Masur and the
New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall and gave his recital debut at Tisch Center at the 92nd Street Y; his performances drew enthusiastic critical response at both venues. After these triumphs, he was invited to return to New York for further engagements at prominent concert venues, including with the
New York Philharmonic. Over the next few years, he appeared with most of the leading American orchestras, including those in
Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh,
Boston,
Chicago, and
San Francisco, and also played with numerous orchestras abroad, including the
Staatskapelle Berlin (under
Daniel Barenboim) and the
Essen Philharmonic. He has appeared in chamber music performances with many leading performers, including
Mitsuko Uchida,
Richard Goode, and
Kim Kashkashian.
Biss has commissioned and premiered new works by several composers, including
David Ludwig,
Lewis Spratlan and
Bernard Rands, and in 2105, he created a new commissioning project, "Beethoven/5," with the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, with the goal to commission five new concertos inspired by
Beethoven by five different composers.
Biss' first recording was released in 2004 on EMI and included works by Beethoven and Schumann. In 2011,
Biss began his survey of
Beethoven's complete piano sonatas, releasing the nine volumes over the next eight years, with the complete set released by Orchid Classics in 2020. The
Beethoven piano sonatas are also the subject of
Biss' book Beethoven's Shadow, published in 2011.