Good morning. It's Monday, April 6. What better way to start the week than with some music?
Today's message comes from the world-renowned pianist Jonathan Biss. "I don't live in your beautiful city, but I love it," he says to Seattle. "I've been there lots of times playing in Benaroya Hall and Meany Hall and I really hope to be back there soon."
He also says that for him, "Beethoven has been the single most nourishing thing these past few weeks. Somehow, despite deafness and alcoholism and misanthropy and god knows what else, he was always able to hold onto his sense of hope and idealism. If he could, maybe the rest of us can too."
And then Jonathan plays some Beethoven for us:
Jonathan is a pianist who channels his deep musical curiosity into performances and projects in the concert hall and beyond.
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.
Jonathan was recently named co-artistic director at the Marlboro Music Festival. He also leads a massive open online course via Coursera, which has reached more than 150,000 people from nearly every country in the world. He has written extensively about the music he plays, and has authored three e-books, including Beethoven’s Shadow, the first Kindle Single written by a classical musician, published by Rosetta Books in 2011.
Read more about Jonathan's career here and here.
Thank you so much for the love, Jonathan, and for starting our week off right.
Have a good Monday, everyone.
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Previously in this series:
