Jonathan Biss piano

Award Winner 2003

Twenty four year-old American pianist, Jonathan Biss, is already working at the highest level with a flourishing international reputation through his orchestral and recital performances in North America and Europe. He has performed with most major U.S. orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony. In the summer of '05, he returned to the Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by David Robertson and appeared for the first time at the Risor and the Schleswig-Holstein festivals and in the U.S., at the Aspen and Tanglewood festivals. He has worked with many of the world's most distinguished conductors among them Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, David Zinman and Sir Neville Marriner. As well as the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Jonathan Biss has been recognised with numerous awards including the 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award, Wolf Trap's Shouse Debut Artist Award, Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award. He was the first and only American chosen to participate in the BBC's New Generation Artist scheme (2002) and most recently received the 2005 Leondard Bernstein Award. Last Spring, EMI Classics released Biss's debut recording of works by Beethoven and Schumann on the EMI Debut label.

Last updated: February 2006

Photograph taken by Jimmy Katz