American pianist Jonathan Bass appears frequently throughout the United States and around the world as soloist and chamber musician. A Steinway Artist, Bass made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall after he was awarded First Prize in the 1993 Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition. New York Concert Review wrote, “A technical presence to be reckoned with…soaring with a feeling of lyrical discovery.” He is a regular presence at Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, and at Tanglewood. His solo and chamber music recording have received high acclaim from Gramophone Magazine. Internationally, he has performed in China, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, and Russia. He has been featured on many radio programs throughout the United States, including National Public Radio’s ‘Performance Today’. Bass has performed as concerto solo soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall and the North Carolina Symphony at the Appalachian Summer Festival. Other competition prizes include First Prize in the 1984 American National Chopin Competition, First Prize in the 1989 American Pianists Association Beethoven Fellowship Competition, and First Prize in the 1983 National Arts Club Competition. He received Second Prize in the 1993 Washington International Competition and Second Prize in the 1983 Young Keyboard Artists Competition, and the Bronze Medal and Mozart Prize at the 1987 Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition.
Collaborative highlights include multiple guest appearances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and recitals with many past and present members of the Boston Symphony, including violinist Joseph Silverstein and cellist Jules Eskin. He also partners with his wife, BSO violinist Tatiana Dimitriades, in the Boston Duo. For more than 20 years, as the pianist and a founding member of the Walden Chamber Players, he performed on a variety of chamber music series and residencies across the United States and Canada. Mr. Bass has also performed as orchestral keyboardist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in at Tanglewood, at Symphony Hall, at Carnegie Hall, and on two European Festival tours under conductors Roberto Abbado, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Bernard Haitink, and Seiji Ozawa. Other conductors he has worked with include Andris Nelsons, Charles Dutoit, Jacque Lacombe, Louis Lane, Keith Lockhart, Marcelo Lehninger, Ludovic Morlot, Ronald Knudsen, and Thomas Wilkins.
He earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Adele Marcus and Sasha Gorodnitski. He also holds a Doctor of Music degree from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied with, and was teaching assistant to, Menahem Pressler. His early studies with Richard Fabre at the Juilliard School Pre-College were followed by a year at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow at the age of 17. Jonathan Bass is a Professor of Piano at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he has served on the faculty since 1993. He also teaches at New England Conservatory in the Preparatory School. His students have won many competition prizes, and he has given numerous master classes throughout the United States and around the world.
For further information, visit jonathanbass.net.
B.M, M.M. The Juilliard School (1983) Doctor of Music Indiana University School of Music (1992); studies at Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow (1977-78); studies with Richard Fabre, Nelita True, John Perry, Lev Vlassenko, Adele Markus, Sascha Gorodnitzi, Herbert Stessin, Menahem Pressler; Assistant Professor San Jose State University (1990-1993); Assistant Professor and Interim Chair of Piano Department Boston University School of Music (2006-2008); Chair of Piano Department Boston Conservatory (2008-2015); faculty Boston Conservatory (1993-present); Professor of Piano Boston Conservatory at Berklee (2017- present).