Timothy Andres

Timothy Andres (born 1985 in Palo Alto, California) is a composer and pianist. He grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, New York. His compositions meld a classical-music upbringing with his interests in the natural world, graphic arts, technology, cooking, and photography. He has been praised for his “acute ear” by Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times’s and his “stubborn nose” by Alex Ross in The New Yorker.

An avid pianist from an early age, Andres (who is called Timo for short) performs widely, focusing especially on music by his contemporaries. “New music cannot be intimidating when played with this degree of skill and zest,” proclaimed Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer of a recent concert. Last season, he gave solo concerts at the Strathmore Performing Arts Center and in the Wordless Music Series at Miller Theater. He also performed his solo piano piece How can I live in your world of ideas? as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series; Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times pronounced the piece “irresistible.”

Andres’s début album, Shy and Mighty, was released in May 2010 on Nonesuch. The disc comprises10 interrelated pieces for two pianos, performed by co-pianist David Kaplan and the composer. Shy and Mighty has been an immediate critical success; Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that “the music achieves an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene…. More mighty than shy, [Andres] sounds like himself.” Andres will perform sections from the work with pianist Brad Mehldau at Zankel Hall next March.

Recent commissions include new works for the Metropolis Ensemble; an octet, Some Connecticut Gospel, for members of the New World Symphony; a concerto for violin and viola, Look Around You, for Owen Dalby and the Albany Symphony; and a chamber orchestra work, Nightjar, for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by John Adams. The coming season will feature new pieces for Ensemble ACJW and the acme quartet, among others.

Andres earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale. He first studied composition in high school, at Juilliard’s Pre-College division, with Eric Ewazen and has since worked with Martin Bresnick, Ingram Marshall, Aaron Jay Kernis, Chris Theofanidis, John Halle, Matthew Suttor, Kathryn Alexander, Michael Klingbeil, and Orianna Webb. Eleanor Hancock was his piano teacher for many years; later, he studied with Frederic Chiu, Boris Berman and Elisabeth Parisot. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI, and ASCAP, as well as grants from Meet the Composer and the American Music Center.