Bloomington native a classical prodigy

It is always exciting to see a talented young musician grow into a major player on the tough classical music scene. Even more of a thrill is to know that you were there in the beginning and helped his or her career move from the practice rooms of a university into the world's most famous concert halls. \nPaul Biss and Karen Taylor, both professors of piano at IU, and Tim Northcutt, media relations manager for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO), are three people who know what that feels like. All played a part in the meteoric rise of 22-year-old piano virtuoso Jonathan Biss to the upper echelons of classical music. \nBiss, who was born in Bloomington and studied at IU for six years, will return to Indiana Friday and Saturday night to perform Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto with the ISO and guest conductor Stefan Sanderling. The concert is part of the orchestra's Marsh "Symphony on the Prairie" series and will take place at the Conner Prairie Amphitheater in Fishers at 7:30 p.m. \nJonathan has received numerous accolades for his playing, including the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1999, and the list of musicians he has collaborated with reads like a "Hot List" of world-renowned talent. Isaac Stern, Andreas Schiff, Pinchas Zukerman, Midori and the Emerson Quartet are just a few who have made it onto the list. His father, Paul, is another (along with Jonathan's mother, IU violin professor Miriam Fried), and he feels lucky to be there.\n"There's absolutely no difference between playing with Jonathan and playing with any number of other seasoned veterans," Biss said. "One may think we're doing him a favor or something, but it's almost just the opposite. Sometimes I feel like he's doing us a favor."\nJonathan has a long-standing association with the ISO, having debuted with them in May 1994 on a Family Series concert after winning the orchestra's Michael Ben and Illene Komisarow Maurer Young Musician's Contest. Making his upcoming performance feel even more like a homecoming is the fact that he played the same Mendelssohn concerto at that first concert. \nHe performed again with the ISO at an Indiana Series concert in May 1996, and since then has appeared as a soloist with the best orchestras across the country; winning Wolf Trap's Shouse Debut Artist Award in 1997 and the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award in 2001. This year he is concluding a two-year stint with the Chamber Music Society Two, the prestigious young artist program sponsored by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. \nAll of which comes as absolutely no surprise to Paul Biss. \n"Whenever people talk about Jonathan, one thing that consistently comes up is maturity. Everybody feels that he has an incredible amount of maturity and sophistication that goes far beyond his years," Biss said. "There's honestly a depth and profoundness to his playing that belies his age."\nIU professor of piano Karen Taylor, who was Jonathan's first teacher when he was just 6 years old, concurs.\n"He had a remarkable musical sensitivity and very deep intuitions even as a small boy," said Taylor, recalling those early lessons. "He was playing music by difficult composers like Schumann and Chopin, for example … the Chopin Mazurkas at age 8 or 9. There are certain things you can't really teach a student, such as rubato, but Jonathan had a wonderful instinct for it."\nWhile it might have been expected that, being born into such a musical environment, Jonathan would pursue music as a career, it wasn't a given. It was his own discipline and dedication to his art that was the deciding factor.\n"Initially, we had no strong desire or hopes that he would make a career of it," his father said. "Of course, music is part and parcel in our house, so it was natural for him to study some kind of instrument. After he started and showed considerable promise, we encouraged him as much as possible, but he was the one who, by age 13 or 14, decided to go with it as a career. \n"He's always been motivated by the music more than anything, even more than the piano. He was tremendously serious about studying music."\nNorthcutt recalls Jonathan's first performance with the ISO fondly and, like so many others, has nothing but the highest praise for the young pianist.\n"Everybody in the industry is buzzing about him," Northcutt said. "He first appeared with us on our outdoor series, but the (Young Musician's) Contest he won in 1994 goes back about 50 years. A lot of winners from that contest, besides Jonathan, have gone on to become prominent musicians"