Pianist Jonathan Biss is recognized globally for his “impeccable taste and a formidable technique” (The New Yorker). He regularly appears as a soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Boston Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw, and the London Symphony. Since 2018, he has served as Co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival alongside Mitsuko Uchida.
Throughout the 2026–27 season, Biss appears extensively in recital, chamber music, and concerto engagements across North America and Europe. Orchestral highlights include performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under Andreas Delfs, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra with Aram Demirjian, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra led by Kirill Karabits, Royal Northern Sinfonia under Dinis Sousa, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under Peter Whelan, and the Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra with Robert Kruzik. Recital engagements include appearances at Tippet Rise Art Center, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Chamber Music Sedona, People’s Symphony Concerts, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, and the Steinway International Piano Series in Cardiff. He also concludes his traversal of Mozart’s violin sonatas with violinist Mark Steinberg at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Wigmore Hall, and joins mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and tenor Mark Padmore for recitals across the United Kingdom and Europe.
An acclaimed writer as well as performer, Biss published his fourth book, Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven, in 2020. The first Audible Original by a classical musician, it was named one of Audible’s top audiobooks of the year. He is also a frequent contributor to The New York Times, writing on music, creativity, and culture.
A dedicated advocate for contemporary music, Biss has built major commissioning projects around the music of Beethoven and Schubert. His decade-long Beethoven/5 project with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra paired Beethoven’s piano concertos with newly commissioned works by leading composers. The final volume in the accompanying Orchid Classics recording series, featuring Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto alongside Caroline Shaw’s Watermark, was released in 2026 and was named an Editor’s Choice by both Gramophone and Limelight. Most recently, Biss collaborated with Alvin Singleton, Tyshawn Sorey, and Tyson Gholston Davis on a Schubert-inspired commissioning project, with a recording scheduled for release in fall 2026.
Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Biss recorded the composer’s complete piano sonatas and created the free online Coursera lecture series Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. His virtual performance of Beethoven’s final three sonatas for 92NY in 2020 reached an online audience of more than 280,000 listeners.
Biss is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Leonard Bernstein Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and a Gilmore Young Artist Award. His recordings have received both Diapason d’Or and Edison awards. A third-generation professional musician, he studied with Evelyne Brancart at Indiana University and Leon Fleisher at the Curtis Institute of Music.
JULY 2026 AT THE REQUEST OF THE ARTIST – PLEASE DO NOT ALTER THIS BIOGRAPHY
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