Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season September-October 2017 | Page 31
Jonathan Biss
Jonathan Biss is a
world-renowned
pianist who shares his
deep musical curiosity
with classical music
lovers in the concert hall and beyond.
Over nearly two decades on the concert
stage, he has forged relationships
with the New York Philharmonic;
the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and
Philharmonia orchestras; the Boston,
Chicago, and Swedish Radio
symphony orchestras; and the Leipzig
Gewandhaus, Budapest Festival, and
Royal Concertgebouw orchestras,
among many others. In addition to
performing a full schedule of concerts,
the 37-year-old American has spent ten
summers at the Marlboro Music Festival
and has written extensively about his
relationships with the composers with
whom he shares the stage. A faculty
member of his alma mater, the Curtis
Institute of Music, since 2010, Biss led
the first massive open online course
(MOOC) offered by a classical music
conservatory, Exploring Beethoven’s
Piano Sonatas, which has reached more
than 150,000 people in 185 countries.
Part three is set to come out in January
2018, and he continues to add lectures
until covering all of the sonatas.
This season, Biss continues his
latest Beethoven project, Beethoven/5,
for which the Saint Paul Chamber
Orchestra is co-commissioning five
composers to write new piano concertos,
each inspired by one of Beethoven’s.
The five-year plan began with Biss
premiering Timo Andres’ “The Blind
Banister,” a finalist for the Pulitzer
Prize in Music, which was followed
by Sally Beamish’s “City Stanzas” last
season. This fall, with the Saint Paul
Chamber Orchestra, he premieres
Salvatore Sciarrino’s concerto, paired
with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto
No. 4, and goes on to play it with
the Cleveland Orchestra later in the
year. The first two commissions
continue to have a life, with “The
Blind Banister” at the Jacksonville
and New World symphonies and
with new opportunities
to flourish. ™
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ShakeSpeare in Love
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S E P – O C T 2017 / OV E R T U R E
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