AUTHOR

Jonathan Biss

Arts & Entertainment | Biographies & Memoirs

Jonathan Biss has appeared with the foremost orchestras of North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Widely regarded known not only for his artistry and poetic interpretations but also for his deep musical curiosity, Biss performs a diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven, through the Romantics to Janáček and Schoenberg as well as works by contemporary composers such as Gyorgy Kurtág and including commissions from Leon Kirchner, Lewis Spratian and Bernard Rands. Biss has a noted recording career. His recordings include an album of Schubert sonatas and two short Kurtág pieces that was named by NPR Music as one of the best albums of the year. In January 2012, Onyx Classics released the first CD in a nine-year, nine-disc recording cycle of Beethoven's complete sonatas. The second album of Beethoven sonatas will release in January 2013. Biss studied at Indiana University and at The Curtis Institute of Music, where he was appointed to the piano faculty in 2010. Jonathan Biss has just released a new Kindle Single, "Coda," about the idea of “Late Style” and what that means for Brahms, Schubert, Mozart, and, of course, Beethoven! His previous work on Amazon includes "A Pianist Under the Influence" and "Beethoven’s Shadow," the first Kindle Single written by a classical musician. In Coda, Biss attempts to answer the timeless question of what causes artists to go in new directions towards the end of their lives. As in his previous writing, he examines the relation between the composers’ lives and their music, but also talks about what the music means to him as a performer and a human being. Photo by Jamie Jung