Jonathan Biss

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. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke