Timo Andres

Born in 1985 in Palo Alto, California, as Timothy Andres and raised amid the countryside of Connecticut, the composer and pianist established an early profile when, at age seventeen, he performed Ravel alongside his own Tango on the NPR broadcast From the Top. He first studied in Juilliard’s pre-college division in New York before completing undergraduate and graduate degrees at Yale. During his undergraduate years he wrote chamber pieces such as the outdoor work I Found It in the Woods for flute, viola, and harp, and, echoing Charles Ives, he has continued to weave impressions of the New England landscape into his scores.

At twenty-four the Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned Nightjar, led by conductor John Adams, whose music has remained a decisive influence. Subsequent commissions have come from the Boston Symphony for Everything Happens So Much, from Carnegie Hall for Strong Language (premiered by the Takács Quartet), and from pianist Jonathan Biss for the concerto The Blind Banister. Beyond Ives and other classical forebears, Andres draws on the sonic worlds of Radiohead, Sigur Rós, and Brian Eno.

In recital and as soloist he has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Britten Sinfonia, among other groups, and he has partnered with Philip Glass in performances of the complete Etudes. More than twenty of his own compositions have been recorded; on the Nonesuch label he released the orchestral collection Home Stretch in 2013 and, as pianist, the album Sufjan Stevens: The Decalogue. In 2018 he joined the composition faculty at New York’s Mannes School of Music. Two years later he contributed both as composer and performer to the anthology I Still Play, and in 2023 he collaborated again with Stevens on the Asthmatic Kitty release Reflections. The Metropolis Ensemble’s 2024 Nonesuch recording Timo Andres: The Blind Banister gathers further works by the composer.