Johannes Jess–Kropfitsch is one of the most interesting Viennese pianists. His playing especially shows his intellectual penetration of the works and his excellent technique which enables him to present extremely virtous interpretations. Together with the standard repertoire, his repertoire also includes all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, the entire Well Tempered Clavier by Bach and all of Chopin’s etudes.Another main part of his repertoire are the piano concerts by  Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Grieg, Schmidt, Kattnigg, and others which he has performed with the Moscow Philharmonic, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Vienna Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra; the Slovenian Philharmonic, the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, The Kobe 20th Century Orchestra, and others. At the age of five, Jess-Kropfitsch received his first piano tuition at the Klagenfurt conservatory. At the age of ten student of the preparatory class at the Wiener Musikhochschule in the class of Prof. Langer-Rühl. Concert studies with Prof. Petermandl and later with Prof. Graf. After finishing his studies with unanimous distinction continuation of his studies with Prof.  Stanislaus Neuhaus and Prof. Alexander Jenner. Private tuition with Wilhelm Kempff. Exceptionally successful participation in piano competitions during his education period: First prize in the national “Jugend musiziert” competition in 1973 in Leoben for piano solo and duo (together with his sister Elisabeth/violin), gold medal and third prize at the international “Viotti” competition in 1974 in Vercelli/Italy, first prize in the national “Jugend musiziert”competition in 1975 in trio, finalist diploma at the international “Busoni competition” in 1976 in Bolzano, Prix Alex de Vries in the international “Marguerite Long” competition in Terni/Italy in 1981, first prize in the international “Cittá di Senigallia” competition in Italy, semi-finalist in the “Luis Sigall” competition in Vina del Mar/Chile,

first prize (a new grand piano) in the Bösendorfer Competition in 1985 in Vienna, the German Bank prize in the “Franz Schubert” competition in 1982 in Dortmund. From his early youth concerts as soloist as well as in duo and trio with his sister Elisabeth (violin) and his brother Stefan (cello), with whom he founded the internationally leading Jess–Trio–Vienna. Regular appearances at musical centres, such as Vienna (Konzerthaus, Musikverein), Salzburg, Milan, Rome, Genoa, Berlin (Philharmonic), Basel, Zurich (Tonhalle), Graz (Musikverein), Jerusalem (Rebecca Crown Hall), Tel Aviv, Barcelona (Palau de Musica) Madrid, Warsaw (Philharmonic), Hamburg (Musikhalle), New York (Carnegie Recital Hall), London, Montreal, Copenhagen, Moscow (Tchaikovsky Hall), Tokyo, Peking (Forbidden City Music Festival, among others. His own “Jess–Trio–Vienna” series of chamber music since 1995 at the Vienna Konzerthaus. Radio and television recordings, also performing rarely played repertoire with the ORF, SRG, ZDF, NDR, RAI, BBC. Numerous live concert recordings. CD recordings in cooperation with Gramola, EMI and ORF. Pedagogic activity first in 1985 as assistant to Professor Hans Graf at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, from 1992 as professor at the Klagenfurt Conservatory and lecturer at international music seminars. Since 1998 class for both, Bachelor and Master students at the Konservatorium Wien University. His studies of the legal sciences (graduation to doctor of law in 1987) additionally enable him to organise musical events. Thus he was a member of the board of the Musikverein for Carinthia, President of the Johannes Brahms Society in Pörtschach am Wörthersee and founder of the “International Johannes Brahms Competition” in Pörtschach am Wörthersee. Among instrumentalists and with the public, Johannes Jess-Kropfitsch is also a much coveted composer and as well as arranger of famous works for piano trio.