March 14, 2006
The Maryland Symphony Orchestra Performs “Audience Favorites” on March 25 & 26, 2006

HAGERSTOWN, MD - Audience members have cast their ballots and the winners will be presented during A Rare Selection of Audience Favorites on March 25 at 8:00 pm and March 26 at 3:00 pm at the Maryland Theatre in downtown Hagerstown. Music Director Elizabeth Schulze leads the Maryland Symphony Orchestra in this very special concert, the fourth in this season’s MasterWorks series, which includes Mendelssohn’s lovely Overture to A Midsummer's Night Dream and Beethoven’s masterpiece, Symphony No. 5. Guest artist Jonathan Biss highlights this “Festival of Favorites” with his performance of Brahms’ breathtaking “Piano Concerto No. 1.”

Twenty-four-year-old American pianist Jonathan Biss has already proved himself an accomplished and exceptional musician with a flourishing international reputation through his orchestral and recital performances in North America and Europe. Noted for his intriguing programs, artistic maturity and versatility, Mr. Biss performs a diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven, through the Romantics to Janácek and Schoenberg as well as works by contemporary composers.
In April, EMI Classics released Mr. Biss's highly anticipated recording debut: a CD comprising Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 and two works by Ludwig van Beethoven - Fantasy in G minor, Op. 77 and Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata.) The Los Angeles Times called Mr. Biss "a serious, accomplished artist who puts the composer before the player," the San Francisco Chronicle said his debut CD is "brilliant," and the Cleveland Plain Dealer remarked that this "recording is a clear signal that a master is emerging."

Mr. Biss has performed with most major U.S. orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Seattle Symphony.

Mr. Biss made his New York recital debut at the 92nd Street Y's Tisch Center for the Arts in 2000. Of his New York Philharmonic debut under Kurt Masur that same season, The New York Times wrote that Mr. Biss played with "assurance, intelligence and vitality.” Mr. Biss has given recitals at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in many other cities throughout the U.S. and Canada including Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, San Diego and Vancouver as well as at Caramoor and Ravinia. Abroad he has performed with the BBC Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Berlin, at the Verbier and Bad Kissingen Festivals, and has given recitals in London, Munich, Toulouse, Zurich, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and at Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany.

Jonathan Biss represents the third generation in a family of professional musicians that includes his grandmother Raya Garbousova, one of the first well-known female cellists (for whom Samuel Barber composed his Cello Concerto), as well as his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul Biss. He began his piano studies at age six and his first musical collaborations were with his mother and father. Mr. Biss studied at Indiana University with Evelyne Brancart and at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Leon Fleisher.

Mr. Biss was an artist-in-residence on NPR's "Performance Today" and has been recognized 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, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He was the first and only American chosen to participate in the BBC's New Generation Artist program.

MasterWorks IV concert sponsors are Ruth Anne and Art Callaham, Mr. and Mrs. Anton Dahbura, Jeanne and Mack Davis, Dr. and Mrs. Robert K. Hobbs, Mr. and Mrs. Edward H. Lough, Joan and John Treadway, and Sovereign Bank. Tickets for “Audience Favorites” and for the April 22 and 23 season finale concert can be purchased at the MSO Box Office located at 13 S. Potomac Street in Hagerstown, Maryland, or by calling 301-797-4000. Ticket holders are invited to join Music Director Elizabeth Schulze for “Prelude,” a free half-hour discussion of the featured works and composers, which begins one hour prior to each MasterWorks concert.

Led by Music Director and Conductor Elizabeth Schulze, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, now in its 24th season, is the area’s premiere professional orchestra, dedicated to providing musical performances and programs that educate and entertain while enhancing the cultural environment of Western Maryland and the surrounding region.