Jonathan Biss

American pianist Jonathan Biss launched his career in the late '90s with appearances as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony and several other prominent national ensembles. While he has generally favored standard-repertory works, he has ventured onto contemporary turf with compositions by John Corigliano, Leon Kirchner, and others. His pianism draws enthusiastic critical response.

Biss was born on September 18, 1980, in Bloomington, Indiana to a musical family. At 11 he began studies at Indiana University with and three years later (1994) won the concerto competitions held by the Indianapolis and Bloomington symphony orchestras, two ensembles with whom Biss then appeared in performances of the Mendelssohn G minor Piano Concerto. 

In 1997 Biss began studying with Leon Fleisher at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Biss appeared that same year at Wolf Trap with Isaac Stern and there accepted the Shouse Debut Artist Award from him. Biss has since appeared as soloist with several of the more important American orchestras, including those in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco and also played with numerous orchestras abroad, including the Staatskapelle Berlin including the Baltimore and Seattle symphony orchestras, and the Buffalo and Rochester philharmonic orchestras. Biss' first recording was released in 2005 on EMI and included works by Beethoven and Schumann. 

Jonathan Biss has been a Steinway Artist since 2003.