Phillips Center hosts Academy of St Martin in the Fields with Jonathan Biss

January 31, 2007

GAINESVILLE, FL — The Academy of St Martin in the Fields will appear with pianist Jonathan Biss at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 14, at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Florida campus.

Although the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is no longer based at the church (St-Martin-the-Fields) that lent the group its name, people still regularly turn up on Sundays asking when the Academy’s next concert might take place.

Begun in 1958 as a conductor-less chamber ensemble, the academy specializes in baroque music. The “academy” part of its name was inspired by the various concert-giving societies that flourished in 18th-century London, most notably the Academy of Ancient Music and the Royal Academy. Only two years after its inception, the academy received its first recording contract on the independent label L’Oiseau-Lyre, founded by eccentric Australian millionaire Louise Hanson Dyer. Now, nearly 50 years later, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields has become the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world, with nearly 500 entries in its discography.

Joining the Academy of St Martin in the Fields will be 26-year-old American pianist Jonathan Biss, who made his New York Philharmonic debut in 2000. He has appeared with the foremost orchestras in the United States and Europe, including the Indianapolis Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Salzburg and the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich.

Biss has won numerous awards, including the Leonard Bernstein Award (2005), the Gilmore Young Artist Award (2002) and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award (2003). He was an artist-in-residence on NPR’s “Performance Today” and is the first American chosen to take part in the BBC’s New Generation Artist program.

Tickets are available by calling the Phillips Center Box Office at (352) 392-ARTS (2787) or (800) 905-ARTS or by calling Ticketmaster at (904) 353-3309. Orders may be faxed to (352) 846-1562. Tickets are also available in person at the Phillips Center Box Office, University Box Office at the University of Florida Reitz Student Union and all Ticketmaster outlets; and on the Web at www.ticketmaster.com.

The Phillips Center Box Office is open from noon to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and two hours before performances.