Pianist Jonathan Biss is recognized globally for his “impeccable taste and a formidable

technique” (The New Yorker). Praised by The Boston Globe as "an eloquent and insightful

music writer," Biss published his fourth book, Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven, in 2020. The

book was the first Audible Original by a classical musician and one of Audible’s top

audiobooks of the year.

Biss has appeared as a soloist with some of the world's foremost orchestras, including the

Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Boston Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw,

the London Symphony and more. He has served as the Co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro

Music School and Festival alongside pianist Mitsuko Uchida since 2018. He served on the

faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music for ten years, and has been a guest professor at

schools such as the Guildhall SOMAD and the New England Conservatory of Music. Biss is

also the author of Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven, in which he examines music and his own

life's journey through the lens of Beethoven's last piano sonatas.

Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, Biss recorded the

composer’s complete piano sonatas, and offered insights to all 32 landmark works via his

free, online Coursera lecture series Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. In March 2020,

Biss gave a virtual recital presented by 92NY, wherein he performed Beethoven’s last three

piano sonatas for an online audience of more than 280,000 people. In 2024, Biss

participated in Princeton University Concert's Healing Through Music Series, appearing

alongside author Adam Haslett for a panel discussion on anxiety, depression, and creativity.

Biss is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Leonard Bernstein Award, the Andrew

Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust

Award, and a Gilmore Young Artist Award. His albums for EMI won the Diapason d’Or de

l’Année and Edison awards. He was an artist-in-residence on American Public Media’s

Performance Today and was the first American chosen to participate in the BBC’s New

Generation Artist program.

Biss is a third-generation professional musician; his grandmother is Raya Garbousova, one of

the first famous female cellists (for whom Samuel Barber composed his Cello Concerto), and

his parents are violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul Biss. Growing up surrounded by

music, Biss began his piano studies at age six, with his first musical collaborations alongside

his mother and father. He studied with Evelyne Brancart at Indiana University and Leon

Fleisher at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Concert extraordinaire du Nouvel An