Twenty-five-year-old American pianist Jonathan
Biss has already proved himself an accomplished and exceptional
musician with a flourishing international reputation through
his orchestral and recital performances in North America and
Europe. He boasts a clutch of prestigious awards, most recently
the 2005 Leonard Bernstein Award, which he received at the
Schleswig-Holstein Festival. Noted for his intriguing programs,
artistic maturity and versatility, Biss performs a diverse
repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven, through the Romantics
to Janek and Schoenberg as well as works by contemporary composers.
Biss has performed with most major North American
orchestras, including the Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati,
Chicago, Dallas, National, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco Symphonies;
the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, and the Metropolitan
Opera, Minnesota, National Arts Centre, and Philadelphia orchestras.
Abroad, he has performed with the BBC Symphony; Gulbenkian
Orchestra; the BBC; Essen, Israel, Munich, and Rotterdam Philharmonics;
and Staatskapelle Berlin.
In the summer of 2005, in addition to a return
engagement at the Ravinia Festival, Mr. Biss made his debut
at seven international music festivals: Aspen, the Hollywood
Bowl, New York's Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, the Risor Festival
in Norway, London's Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein
Festival in Germany. In past seasons he performed at Caramoor,
Bad Kissingen, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, Klavier-Festival
Ruhr in Germany, and at Verbier.
His return appearances
during 05-06 included the San Francisco Symphony and the
New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta, Boston, and New Jersey
Symphonies. He made debuts with the Houston, Nashville, Saint
Louis, and Seattle Symphonies. In the 06-07 season, Biss
will give recitals in numerous cities in the U.S. and Europe,
including Berkeley, Chicago, and Philadelphia, Amsterdam,
Milan, Brussels, Toulouse, and Paris. His recital repertoire
will include a new work "Wonderer" by Pulitzer Prize-winning
composer Lewis Spratlan, which was commissioned for Biss by
the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.
An enthusiastic chamber
musician, Biss has been a member of Chamber Music Society
Two at Lincoln Center, a frequent participant at the Marlboro
Music Festival, and has toured with "Musicians from Marlboro" on
several occasions. He has appeared at the Jerusalem Chamber
Music Festival and frequently collaborates with such chamber
ensembles as the Borromeo, Mendelssohn and Vermeer quartets.
Next season he will perform with Miriam Fried and the Mendelssohn
String Quartet and with the Borromeo Quartet will give performances
in New York for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,
in Ft. Collins, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Kansas City.
His first commercial
recording CD on the EMI label comprising Schumann's DavidsŸndlertŠnze,
Op. 6 and Beethoven's Fantasy in G minor, Op. 77 and Piano
Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata) has won wide
acclaim. The Los Angeles Times called Biss "a serious, accomplished
artist who puts the composer before the player," the San Francisco
Chronicle called this a "brilliant debut release," and the
Cleveland Plain Dealer remarked that this "recording is a clear
signal that a master is emerging."
Among the many conductors with whom he has
worked are Kurt Masur, Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert
Blomstedt, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, James Levine, Neville
Marriner, and Pinchas Zukerman.
Jonathan Biss represents the third generation
in a family of professional musicians that includes his grandmother
Raya Garbousova, one of the first well-known female cellists
(for whom Samuel Barber composed his Cello Concerto), as well
as his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist
Paul Biss. He began his piano studies at age six and his first
musical collaborations were with his mother and father.
Biss was an artist-in-residence
on NPR's "Performance
Today" and has been recognized, in addition to the Bernstein
award, with numerous other honors including the 2002 Gilmore
Young Artist Award, Wolf Trap's Shouse Debut Artist Award,
the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, Lincoln Center's
Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the
2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He was the first American
chosen to participate in the BBC's New Generation Artist program.
