Orion Weiss
Orion Weiss (born November 8, 1981) is an American classical pianist. Education and Teaching. Weiss began his musical studies at the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City, Iowa. When his family moved to Lyndhurst, Ohio, he continued his piano studies with Carol Lubetkin, and later with pianist and composer Edith Reed. He attended the Interlochen Arts Camp between 1991 and 1995. Between 1995-2000 he studied with Paul Schenly, Reinberger Chair in Piano and Head of the Piano Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Also during these years he attended summer music festivals and workshops at  Pianofest in the Hamptons, the Sergei Babayan International Piano Academy, the Perlman Music Program, and Music Academy of the West. In 2004 he graduated from the Juilliard School in New York earning a Bachelor of Music degree. At Juilliard, he studied with Emanuel Ax. Weiss has participated regularly in a teaching residency for gifted young musicians in Medellin, Colombia, Red Esquela de Musica Festicamara Medellin. Career. In February 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. In March 1999, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a  performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was immediately invited to return to the Orchestra for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in October 1999. Weiss was featured in the 2004 "Musical America" and the March 2004 "Symphony Magazine" as part of the next generation of great artists in classical music. He has performed with numerous orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, New World Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. He made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in April  2005. Also in 2005, he made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman. He toured the US with the Orchester der Klangverwaltung Munich conducted by Enoch zu Guttenberg in October 2007. He toured China with the Pittsburgh Symphony in May 2009 ("Cultural China"). In 2010 he was featured in a recording project of the complete Gershwin works for piano and orchestra with the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta "What this Gershwin recording means to me". In the summer of 2011 , Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood . He has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Festival, the Denver Friends of Chamber Music, the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, and the 92nd Street Y, and at the Aspen, Bard, Ravinia, and Grand Teton summer festivals. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared across the United States at venues and festivals from, among many, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to the Seattle Chamber Music Society, to the Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall with Itzhak Perlman in a benefit for the  Perlman Music Program. He was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2002–2004, which included his appearance in the opening concert of the Society’s 2002-03 season at Alice Tully Hall with Shai Wosner. In addition, Weiss has performed duo-piano recitals with, among others, Emanuel Ax. Weiss described his preparation for recitals in a 2006 profile in "International Piano". Weiss made his recital debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in January 2012. He joined the Pacifica Quartet at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico in  the spring of 2012. He still tours regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen, Benjamin Beilman, James Ehnes, and Arnaud Sussman; pianist Shai Wosner; cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, Yarlung and Artek labels in recordings such as The Piano Protagonists with The Orchestra Now led by Leon Botstein; Scarlatti’s Complete Keyboard Sonatas; a recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing; Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra  with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta; a disc of Bartók, Dvorák, and Prokofiev; Brahms Sonatas with violinist Arnaud Sussmann; a solo album of J.S. Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, and Carter; and a recital disc of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Schumann, Massenet, and Piatigorsky with cellist Julie Albers. In 2018, Weiss self-released Presentiment, a recording that explores the omens and anxiety of the tense world leading up to the first World War with music by Granados, Janáček, and Scriabin. Orion Weiss was married to the pianist Anna Polonsky with whom he performed two-piano concertos with orchestra (most recently the Columbus  symphony), as well as collaborating in duo-piano and four-hand recitals, including Chamber Music Northwest, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Camerata Pacifica, Barge Music, Bay Chamber Concerts and the Bard Music Festival.