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ONATHAN BISS PRESENTS NEW PIANO WORKS BY TYSON GHOLSTON DAVIS, ALVIN SINGLETON, AND TYSHAWN SOREY
Orchid Classics | October 30, 2026
“Tyson Gholston Davis, Alvin Singleton, and Tyshawn Sorey have written works that are, in three completely different ways, full of mystery and wonder.”
--Jonathan Biss
Jonathan Biss Plays New Piano Works (Orchid Classics, October 30, 2026)features three new solo piano commissions: Tyson Gholston Davis’s …Expansions of Light, Alvin Singleton’s Bed-Stuy Sonata, and Tyshawn Sorey’s For Anthony Braxton.
Throughout the new album, Biss explores new possibilities at the piano, as he has done throughout a career marked by commissioning, performing, and recording contemporary music. The possibilities range from from Davis’s response to the paintings of Helen Frankenthaler to Singleton’s freedom of musical gesture and Sorey’s attention to sound and silence. Biss’s accompanying essays connect the new works to his relationships with the composers and his experience of bringing their scores to life.
The project grew out of Biss having immersed himself in Schubert’s music during the pandemic; he calls the late sonatas “a portal into a different realm.” That inspired him to commission new music that would “expose me to sounds and perspectives I had never imagined, much less heard,” Biss writes in the album’s notes. “Tyson Gholston Davis, Alvin Singleton, and Tyshawn Sorey have written works that are, in three completely different ways, full of mystery and wonder. Living with them has made me grow as a musician and, I suspect, a person. I am thrilled to share them with you.”
About the Works
Tyson Gholston Davis is an American composer whose close engagement with the visual arts has informed works for the Juilliard String Quartet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Biss. His …Expansions of Light (2023) draws on Helen Frankenthaler’s painting Winter Light (1979). The work explores the gradual transformation of musical ideas, taking inspiration from the painting’s shifting hues and the relationships between them. Two contemplative Ariettas surround a rapid central Caprice, whose motion provides contrast within the three-movement span. Commissioned by the Terezín Music Foundation for Biss, the piece is dedicated to Ara Guzelimian.
Alvin Singleton is a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient whose career has included composer residencies with the Atlanta and Detroit symphony orchestras. His Bed-Stuy Sonata (2023) unfolds in a single uninterrupted movement, bringing propulsive gestures into contact with spacious passages. Its title refers to Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Brooklyn neighborhood where Singleton grew up. In his booklet essay, Biss describes the freedom afforded by the composer’s sparse notation and the connections that emerge through repeated encounters with the music. The work has continued to acquire new layers of meaning for him in performance.
Tyshawn Sorey is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, a 2017 MacArthur Fellow, and the winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith). His For Anthony Braxton (2024) places particular expressive weight on the relationship between sound and silence. Biss’s accompanying essay reflects on the music’s quiet intensity and the way Sorey’s precisely notated writing can feel spontaneous in performance. He describes playing the piece as an experience that changes each time, deepening his engagement with its sonorities and its sense of time.
Release details
Jonathan Biss Plays New Piano Works
Jonathan Biss, piano
Orchid Classics | ORC100493
Release date: October 30, 2026
Program
Tyson Gholston Davis — …Expansions of Light (2023)
I. Arietta 1: Floating, meditative
II. Caprice: Rapid, fluent, impetuous
III. Arietta 2: Floating, meditative
Alvin Singleton — Bed-Stuy Sonata (2023)
Tyshawn Sorey — For Anthony Braxton (2024)
Jonathan Biss Plays New Piano Works — Album and booklet HERE
About Jonathan Biss
Jonathan Biss is a pianist, writer, and educator who performs internationally in recital, chamber music, and with leading orchestras. Since 2018, he has shared the artistic leadership of the Marlboro Music School and Festival with Mitsuko Uchida. His recordings include Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas and the Beethoven/5 series, pairing the composer’s piano concertos with new commissions. His fourth book, Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven, appeared in 2020, and his free online course, Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, extends his work as a performer into musical education. Read his current biography.
Upcoming Performances
Jonathan Biss performs Tyshawn Sorey’s For Anthony Braxton at each of the following recitals, alongside works by Beethoven and Kaija Saariaho:
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January 31, 2027, at 11:00 AM — Cardiff, Wales
Steinway International Piano Series, Dora Stoutzker Hall, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Concert details -
February 13, 2027, at 3:00 PM — Sedona, AZ
Chamber Music Sedona, Sedona Performing Arts Center. Concert details -
February 17, 2027, at 7:00 PM — Los Angeles, CA
Colburn School, Zipper Hall. Concert details -
March 2, 2027, at 7:30 PM — Pittsburgh, PA
Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Carnegie Music Hall. Concert details -
March 6, 2027, at 7:30 PM — New York, NY
Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, Washington Irving Campus. Concert details