Jonathan Biss

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American pianist

title: "Jonathan Biss" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1980-births", "living-people", "american-people-of-russian-jewish-descent", "jewish-american-classical-musicians", "curtis-institute-of-music-alumni", "jacobs-school-of-music-alumni", "jewish-classical-pianists", "bbc-radio-3-new-generation-artists", "21st-century-american-classical-pianists", "21st-century-american-jews"] description: "American pianist" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Biss" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American pianist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameJonathan Biss
imageJonathan Biss (cropped).jpg
image_upright0.9
captionBiss in 2019
birth_date
birth_placeBloomington, Indiana, U.S.
genreClassical
occupation
instrumentPiano
years_active2000–present
spouseChristopher Biss-Brown
website
::

| name = Jonathan Biss | image = Jonathan Biss (cropped).jpg | image_upright = 0.9 | alt = | caption = Biss in 2019 | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = | birth_place = Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. | origin = | death_date = | death_place = | genre = Classical | occupation = | instrument = Piano | years_active = 2000–present | spouse = Christopher Biss-Brown | label = | website =

Jonathan Biss (born September 18, 1980) is an American pianist, teacher, and writer based in Philadelphia. He is the co-artistic director (with Mitsuko Uchida) of the Marlboro Music Festival.

Early life and education

Biss was born into a family of musicians in Bloomington, Indiana. His paternal step-grandmother was one of the first well-known female cellists, the Russian cellist Raya Garbousova, for whom Samuel Barber wrote his cello concerto. His parents, Miriam Fried and Paul Biss, are both violinists. His older brother Daniel is a politician serving as the mayor of Evanston, Illinois. Biss started learning the piano at age six, studying with Karen Taylor and Evelyne Brancart at Indiana University Bloomington's Jacobs School of Music, where both his parents taught violin. At 17, Biss entered the Curtis Institute of Music to study with Leon Fleisher. Interviewed by The New York Times in 2011 in the run-up to Biss's Carnegie Hall debut recital, Fleisher said of Biss:

::quote His ability and interest go for things of transcendence and sublimeness. That made a great impression on me. He took a very healthy road that started with chamber music, both with his mother and then more extensively at places like Ravinia and Marlboro, and he got to be known by the elders in the profession as somebody to look out for. ::

Career

Biss made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the 92nd Street Y. In early 2001, he performed with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Kurt Masur. His European career was launched in 2002 when he became the first American to be selected as a BBC New Generation Artist, winning a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award the following year. He made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall in January 2011.

He has appeared with the foremost U.S. orchestras, including the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics; Chicago, and San Francisco Symphonies; and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras. Biss is a frequent guest soloist in Europe, where he has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. An enthusiastic performer of chamber music, Biss has appeared with renowned artists such as Uchida, Fleisher, Richard Goode, Midori, and Kim Kashkashian. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/JonathanBiss.JPG" caption="Biss at [[NPR]] studios in Washington, D.C."] ::

In 2010, Biss was appointed to the piano faculty as Neubauer Family Chair at his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music. As part of his teaching career, Biss became the first classical musician to partner with Coursera. Together they created Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, a free video course on several of Beethoven's most famous sonatas. The course has reached more than 150,000 students in more than 185 countries. He will continue to add lectures until he covers all the sonatas.

Throughout his career, Biss has been particularly noted for his immersive focus on single composers. In 2011, on Beethoven's birthday, he released the eBook Beethoven's Shadow, a 19,000-word meditation on the art of performing Beethoven's piano sonatas. Biss was the first classical musician to be commissioned to write a Kindle eBook. In January 2012, the record label Onyx released the first of Biss's recordings of Beethoven's piano sonatas. It was the first of nine discs to be released over as many years. Biss dedicated his 2012–13 season to Robert Schumann, declaring himself "a fanatic for every note Schumann wrote." The project was titled "Schumann: Under the Influence" and explored Schumann's influences and his legacy. Biss performed a series of concerts internationally with pieces by Schumann's predecessors such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Purcell, and composers who have been influenced by his music such as Leoš Janáček, Alban Berg and contemporary composers György Kurtág and Timo Andres. As part of the project, Biss wrote the Kindle Single eBook A Pianist Under the Influence. The work explains Biss's lifelong, intense, multi-layered relationship with Schumann's music and was excerpted in Slate. Biss also released an album of Schumann and Dvořák with Elias String Quartet.

Biss is also an advocate for new music. He has commissioned pieces including Lunaire Variations by David Ludwig, Interlude II by Leon Kirchner, Wonderer by Lewis Spratlan, and Three Pieces for Piano and a concerto by Bernard Rands, which he premiered with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has also premiered a piano quintet by William Bolcom. In 2016 Biss launched Beethoven/5, for which the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is commissioning five composers to write new piano concertos, each inspired by one of Beethoven's five piano concertos. Biss premiered "The Blind Banister" by Timo Andres, which was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Music, "City Stanzas" by Sally Beamish, Il sogno di Stradella by Salvatore Sciarrino, "Watermark" by Caroline Shaw, and Gneixendorfer Musik - eine Winterreise by Brett Dean.

Biss has begun examining, both in concert and academically, the concept of a composer's "late style", focusing on musicians who went in surprising directions at the ends of their lives. He has put together several programs of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Elgar, Gesualdo, Kurtág, Mozart, Schubert, and Schumann's later works, which he performed with the Brentano Quartet and Mark Padmore in the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, and across the United States. He also gave masterclasses at Carnegie Hall in connection with the idea of late style and published Coda, a Kindle single on the topic, in 2017.

In 2018, Marlboro Music announced that Biss would assume the role of co-artistic director (with Mitsuko Uchida) of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Biss has a long connection with Marlboro, where he spent 12 summers as both a junior and senior participant.

Starting in September 2019, in the lead-up to the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in December 2020, Biss performed a whole season focused around Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, with more than 50 recitals worldwide. This included the complete sonatas at the Wigmore Hall and Berkeley, multi-concert-series in Washington, Philadelphia and Seattle, and recitals in Rome, Budapest, New York and Sydney.

In 2020 Biss performed a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, the United States' National Public Radio. The same year, he released Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven, as part of Audible's Words+Music series. Unquiet was listed as one of the platform's Top Ten Audiobooks the week it was released.

Beginning in September 2021, Biss joined the New England Conservatory of Music as a guest lecturer.

Biss writes occasional "guest essays" for The New York Times.

Personal life

Biss is married to Christopher Biss-Brown, curator of the Children's Literature Research Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Biss has openly discussed his struggles with anxiety and the effects performance has on his mental health.

Awards

Recordings

  • Beethoven/5 Vol. 1: Beethoven ‘Emperor’ Concerto | Brett Dean ‘A Winter’s Journey’, Jonathan Biss, 2024
  • Complete Piano Sonatas, Jonathan Biss, 2020
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 9 - Nos. 7, 18, 32, Jonathan Biss, 2019
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 8 - Nos. 8 (Pathétique), 10, 22, 31, Jonathan Biss, 2019
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 7 - Nos. 2, 20, 17 (The Tempest), 30, Jonathan Biss, 2018
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 6 – Nos. 9, 13 & 29 (Hammerklavier), Jonathan Biss, 2017
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 5 – Nos. 3, 25, 27 and 28, Jonathan Biss, 2016
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 4 – Nos. 1, 6, 19 and 23 (Appassionata), Jonathan Biss, 2015
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 3 – Nos. 15 (Pastoral), 16 & 21 (Waldstein), Jonathan Biss, Onyx Classics, 2014
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol. 2 – Nos. 4, 14 (Moonlight) & 24, (A Thérèse), Jonathan Biss, Onyx Classics, 2013
  • Schumann: Piano Quintet; Dvorak: Piano Quintet No.2, Jonathan Biss and Elias Quartet, Onyx Classics, 2012
  • Beethoven Sonatas Vol. 1 – Nos. 5, 11, 12 (Funeral March) & 26 (Les Adieux), Jonathan Biss, Onyx Classics, 2012
  • Schubert: Piano Sonata in A Major D959; Piano Sonata in C Major 'Reliquie' D840; and two Kurtág Piano Miniatures, Jonathan Biss, Live From Wigmore Hall, WHLive0030, 2009
  • Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 21 & 22, Jonathan Biss and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, EMI Classics, 2008
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Jonathan Biss, EMI Classics, 2007
  • Schumann Recital – Fantasie, Kreisleriana & Arabeske, Jonathan Biss, EMI Classics, 2007
  • Beethoven, Schumann: Piano Works, Jonathan Biss, EMI Classics, 2004

Bibliography

References

References

  1. "Jonathan Biss - Steinway & Sons".
  2. (May 23, 2014). "Mitsuko Uchida & Jonathan Biss, Artistic Directors".
  3. Swinkels, Niels. (June 12, 2013). "Jonathan Biss: A Super, Human, Musical Mission". San Francisco Classical Voice.
  4. Giovetti, Olivia. (January 18, 2011). "Jonathan Biss". Time Out New York.
  5. "A 29th anniversary still something to celebrate".
  6. Smith, Tim. (January 20, 2011). "Pianist Jonathan Biss, fresh from Carnegie Hall". The Baltimore Sun.
  7. Child, Fred. (2004). "Meet Jonathan Biss PT Young Artist-in-Residence". NPR Performance Today.
  8. Kozinn, Allan. (January 14, 2011). "The Way to Carnegie Hall? Success". The New York Times.
  9. Tommasini, Anthony. (November 24, 2002). "Music; New Ways To Conquer New York". The New York Times.
  10. "New Generation Artists A to Z".
  11. "Jonathan Biss piano". BBC.
  12. Pasles, Chris. (December 10, 2007). "An inspired pairing of talents at Disney Hall". The Los Angeles Times.
  13. Eichler, Jeremy. (April 23, 2013). "BSO will tour China, Japan". The Boston Globe.
  14. von Rhein, John. (November 13, 2006). "'Prince' Morlot rocked, but Biss just missed". The Chicago Tribune.
  15. Tircuit, Heuwell. (February 26, 2008). "All Mozart, All Marvelous". San Francisco Classical Voice.
  16. Donald Rosenberg. (November 30, 2007). "Cleveland Orchestra concert showcases splendid performance by pianist Biss". The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
  17. Whiteside, Gregg. (August 23, 2013). "Jonathan Biss Plays Mozart On The Philadelphia Orchestra In Concert Broadcast: Sunday, August 25". WRTI.
  18. Anderson, Colin. (October 28, 2011). "London Philharmonic/Gaffigan – Strauss & Rachmaninov – Jonathan Biss plays Mozart". The Classical Source.
  19. Verney-Elliott, Alex. (December 11, 2009). "BBCSO/Spano Jonathan Biss". The Classical Source.
  20. Toronyi-Lalic, Igor. (March 14, 2011). "Biss, London Symphony Orchestra, Davis, Barbican". The Arts Desk.
  21. "Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra – 5th of Tsjaikovski". Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.
  22. "November 10, 2008 A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH". American Public Media.
  23. "BFO's Concert Season Closes with British Conductor and US Pianist". Budapesti Fesztiválzenekar.
  24. Yaross, Barbara. (February 5, 2004). "Jonathan Biss". The Chicago Reader.
  25. "Dresden / Frauenkirche: 10 Symphony Concert Staatskapelle Dresden". [[Der Neue Merker]].
  26. "The DSO on the radio - broadcast dates". Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin.
  27. "Archived: Borletti-Buitoni Trust Celebrated with Mitsuko Uchida". Southbank Centre.
  28. Schweitzer, Vivian. (February 15, 2010). "Two Pianos, Four Hands, Many Twists". The New York Times.
  29. "Midori with Jonathan Biss and Friends". The Kennedy Center.
  30. Clements, Andrew. (October 22, 2012). "Padmore/Kashkashian/De Guise-Langlois/Biss – review". The Guardian.
  31. Dobrin, Peter. (November 1, 2010). "Curtis Institute Names Jonathan Biss to Faculty". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  32. Oestreich, James. (August 23, 2013). "Hey, Ludwig, There's an App for You". The New York Times.
  33. Isacoff, Stuart. (August 28, 2013). "Saving Classical Music: An App for That?". The Wall Street Journal.
  34. Bora, Madhusmita. (September 3, 2013). "A piano class for 32,000 students began today". Quartz.
  35. Hewett, Ivan. (January 5, 2012). "Jonathan Biss: My mission to spread the word about Beethoven". The Telegraph.
  36. "Recording all of Beethoven's Sonatas".
  37. Terauds, John. (June 5, 2012). "Interview: The steady, thoughtful rise of American pianist Jonathan Biss". Musical Toronto.
  38. Weininger, David. (March 21, 2013). "Jonathan Biss explores Schumann at Jordan Hall". Boston Globe.
  39. Biss, Jonathan. (October 1, 2012). "Private Music". Slate.
  40. Guerrieri, Matthew. (March 25, 2013). "Jonathan Biss reveals Schumann's influence". The Boston Globe.
  41. Maddocks, Fiona. (October 6, 2012). "Schumann & Dvorák: Piano Quintets – review". The Guardian.
  42. Wright, David. (April 4, 2014). "Bernard Rands' witty concerto charms in BSO's world premiere". Boston Classical Review.
  43. (April 15, 2015). "Announcing our 2015–16 season".
  44. "Coda". Amazon Kindle Single.
  45. "Mitsuko Uchida & Jonathan Biss, Artistic Directors".
  46. Huizenga, Tom. (December 15, 2020). "Jonathan Biss: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert".
  47. (December 16, 2020). "Jonathan Biss Releases Audible Original – UNQUIET: My Life with Beethoven – on 17 December".
  48. (December 29, 2020). "The top 10 audiobooks on Audible.com".
  49. Eiseman, Lee. (November 10, 2021). "Is NEC the Right Size? Is the Piano Department in Good Shape?".
  50. (September 8, 2021). "Pianists Jonathan Biss and Marc-André Hamelin join New England Conservatory Faculty".
  51. Biss, Jonathan. [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/opinion/pianist-music-performance-perfection.html?searchResultPosition=1 "The Quest for Perfection Is Stunting Our Society"], ''The New York Times'', November 29, 2025 (listing previous guest essays by Biss as well).
  52. (March 27, 2024). "For Pianist Jonathan Biss, It's Mind Over Music".
  53. Rath, Arun and Matt Baskin. (October 31, 2021). "Climbing The 'Mount Everest' Of Piano Works, Jonathan Biss Reflects On Beethoven And Mental Health".
  54. (July 29, 2021). "Now Unquiet: The Journey of Pianist Jonathan Biss Anxiety & Mental Health Recovery".
  55. "Beethoven Again".
  56. link. (September 24, 2015)
  57. "ConcertoNet.com - The Classical Music Network".
  58. "Mozart: Piano Concertos No 21 & 22 / Jonathan Biss - Emi Classics: EMI-17270 - Buy from ArkivMusic".
  59. "BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 "Pathetique"; Piano Sonata No. 15 in D Major, Op. 28 "Pastoral"; Piano Sonata No. 27 in e Minor, Op. 90; Piano Sonata No. 30 in e Major, Op. 109 - Jonathan Biss, piano - EMI Classics".
  60. "EMI Classics presents Jonathan Biss: Mozart Piano Concertos 21 and 22".

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