Many people are interested in learning more about Beethoven, but don’t have time to dive into music lessons or an intensive study into the artist. But now, potential students of Beethoven can learn more about his piano sonatas in an online, self-paced course. Since 2013, Jonathan Biss has taught an online course, Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, via online learning platform, Coursera. 

Biss is an accomplished pianist: he highlighted Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas in performance cycles and recently completed a nine-volume recording collection. He has appeared with major orchestras around the world, including in the U.S. with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics; the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco Symphonies; and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras.

In addition to performing with today’s leading orchestras, he continues to expand his reputation as a teacher, musical thinker, and one of the great Beethoven interpreters of our time. He joined Mitsuko Uchida as Co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music Festival, where he has spent thirteen summers. He has also written extensively about the music he plays, and has authored three e-books, including the first Kindle Single written by a classical musician (Beethoven’s Shadow).

Additional recent and upcoming Beethoven projects include this season’s performances of the “Emperor” Concerto with Osmo Vänskä and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and beyond as part of a seven-city tour. 

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), and his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul Biss. Growing up surrounded by music, Biss began his piano studies at age six, and his first musical collaborations were with his parents. Biss remembers growing up in a home where music was always playing from nearly every room in the house.

Now, Biss is sharing his love of music with an extended “family” — the 150,000 students who have taken his class. Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas is one of many avenues through which he has engaged with and shared Beethoven’s music over the past decade.  After nearly a decade of in-depth studies on Beethoven, and sharing his insights with a worldwide audience, Biss has chosen to host his last class amidst the worldwide celebrations of Beethoven’s 250th birthday this year.

“Preparing and delivering these lectures over the past seven years has been a life-changing experience,” Biss said. “It has deepened my relationship with Beethoven, and forced me to define—and continually redefine—my priorities in the music that means most to me. The greatest discovery: that after all these years and all this study, these sonatas are more wondrous and more mysterious to me than ever.”

Registration is now open for the sixth and final installment of lectures. The course, which takes approximately 32 hours to complete, provides an in-depth look at Beethoven’s piano sonatas, featuring both analysis and historical background. Its video lessons take the perspective of the performer, exploring and demystifying the work of the pianist, while embracing the mystery of Beethoven’s music itself.

As for the course work? Here’s a sneak peek of the curriculum: Biss devotes one lecture to four of Beethoven’s shorter sonatas—Nos. 9 and 10 in E and G major, Op. 14, and Nos. 19 and 20 in G minor and major, Op. 49—while the remaining three lectures focus on No. 18 in E-flat major, Op. 31, No. 3 (“The Hunt”); No. 22 in F major, Op. 54; and Beethoven’s final piano sonata, No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, respectively.

Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas is offered in partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, where Mr. Biss has been on faculty since 2011 and holds the Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies. All lectures may be accessed via Coursera.org/Curtis.

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