The Calder String Quartet with Timo Andres, Piano

The acclaimed pianist and composer Timo Andres and the "superb" (New York Times) Calder Quartet will perform for Chamber Music Albuquerque as part of a national tour, featuring the premiere performances of Timo's big, new quintet for piano and string quartet, The Great Span. The program will also include a piano solo performed by Timo (Remembering Schubert by Ann Southam), two pieces for string quartet (the soulful Rosamunde quartet of Franz Schubert and an early string quartet by Timo), and an arrangement for piano and string quartet of a brief piece by Julius Eastman.  Here is the full program listing:

Timo Andres: Machine, Learning (String Quartet, 2019) 10'
Schubert: “Rosamunde” quartet in a minor 35’
-intermission-
Ann Southam: Remembering Schubert (solo piano) 10’
Julius Eastman: Joy Boy (arr. for string quartet and piano) 4’
Timo Andres: The Great Span 25’

Timo Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY. A Nonesuch Records artist, his album of orchestral works, Home Stretch, has been hailed for its “playful intelligence and individuality,” (The Guardian) and of his 2010 debut album for two pianos Shy and Mighty (performed by himself and duo partner David Kaplan), Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that “it 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.”

Notable works include Everything Happens So Much for the Boston Symphony with Andris Nelsons; Strong Language, a string quartet for the Takács Quartet, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the Shriver Hall Concert Series; Steady Hand, a two-piano concerto commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia and premiered at the Barbican with Andres and pianist David Kaplan; and The Blind Banister, a piano concerto for Jonathan Biss, which was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.

As a pianist, Andres has appeared with the LA Phil, North Carolina Symphony, the Britten Sinfonia, the Albany Symphony, New World Symphony, and in many collaborations with Andrew Cyr and Metropolis Ensemble. He has performed solo recitals for Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, San Francisco Performances, the Phillips Collection, and (le) Poisson Rouge. Collaborators include Becca Stevens, Jeffrey Kahane, Gabriel Kahane, Brad Mehldau, Nadia Sirota, Chris Thile, the Kronos Quartet, John Adams, and Philip Glass, with whom he has performed the complete Piano Etudes around the world, and who selected Andres as the recipient of the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize. Andres also frequently works with Sufjan Stevens; his recording of Stevens’s solo piano album, The Decalogue, has received widespread acclaim. He was nominated for a Grammy award for his performances on 2021’s The Arching Path, an album of music by Christopher Cerrone.

During the “quiet” season of 2020–21, Andres built an impressive library of music films on YouTube, featuring a deep range of repertoire which he performed, recorded, engineered, directed, and edited from home.

Hailed as "superb" and "imaginative, skillful creators" by the New York Times, the Calder Quartet captivates audiences exploring a broad spectrum of repertoire, always striving to fulfill the composer’s vision in their performances. The group's distinctive artistry is exemplified by a musical curiosity brought to everything they perform and has led them to be called "one of America’s most satisfying - and most enterprising - quartets". (Los Angeles Times)


Winners of the prestigious 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, they are widely known for the discovery, commissioning, recording and mentoring of some of today’s best emerging composers. In addition to performances of the complete Beethoven and Bartok quartets, the Calder Quartet’s dedication to commissioning new works has given rise to premieres of dozens of string quartets by established and up-and-coming composers including Peter Eötvös, Andrew Norman, Christopher Rouse, Ted Hearne and Christopher Cerrone. Inspired by innovative American artist Alexander Calder, the Calder Quartet’s desire to bring immediacy and context to the works they perform creates an artfully crafted musical experience.



Recent highlights include Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Disney Hall, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, multiple performances at Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Salzburg Festival, Donaueschingen Festival, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Tonhalle Zurich, IRCAM Paris, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and the Sydney Opera House. They have performed as soloists with the Cleveland Orchestra and LA Philharmonic and have collaborated with musicians such as Thomas Adès, Peter Eötvös, Anders Hillborg, Daniel Bjarnasson, Andrew Norman, Audrey Luna, Johannes Moser, Joshua Bell, Menahem Pressler, Joseph Kalechstein, Paul Neubauer, Iva Bittová and Edgar Meyer.