Performer Biographies

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 Bartók 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.

In 2017, the quartet signed an exclusive, multi-disc record deal with Pentatone Records. Their 2018 debut recording features the music of Beethoven and Swedish composer Anders Hillborg. Previously the quartet has appeared on Signum Classics, BMC records, Bridge Records and E1 recording the quartets of Peter Eötvös with Audrey Luna, Thomas Adès’ chamber music with the composer at the piano, early works of Terry Riley, the chamber music of Christopher Rouse, Mozart Piano concertos with Anne-Marie McDermott, and Ravel and Mozart quartets.

As a side project, the quartet has collaborated with acts such as Andrew WK, Lord Huron, Vampire Weekend, and The National. Television appearances include the Late Show with David Letterman, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel, and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson as well as radio appearances on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, Performance Today, WQXR New York, KUSC Los Angeles, Colorado Public Radio, and NPR.

In 2011 the Calder Quartet launched a non-profit dedicated to furthering its efforts in commissioning, presenting, recording, and education, collaborating with the Getty Museum, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and the Barbican Centre in London. The Calder Quartet formed at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and continued studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music with Ronald Leonard, and at the Juilliard School, receiving the Artist Diploma in Chamber Music Studies as the Juilliard Graduate Resident String Quartet. The quartet regularly conducts master classes and has taught at the Colburn School, the Oberlin School the Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Cincinnati College Conservatory and USC Thornton School of Music.

Timo Andres is a Bay Area-born composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Notable works include Everything Happens So Much for the Boston Symphony; Strong Language 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 premiered at the Barbican by Andres and David Kaplan; and The Blind Banister, a concerto for Jonathan Biss, which was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.

As a pianist, Timo Andres has appeared with the LA Phil, North Carolina Symphony, 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, the Kronos Quartet, John Adams, and Philip Glass, with whom he has performed the complete Glass 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 orchestral arrangements of Stevens’s ballet, Principia, were presented last season by the New York City Ballet, and his recording of Stevens’s solo piano album, The Decalogue, has received widespread acclaim.

Other recent projects include a new work for the Calder Quartet through the LA Phil, premiered at Noon to Midnight; a major choral-orchestral work for the Orchester Cottbus Staatstheater, Land Mass; and dates at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Neue Galerie, and Big Ears Festival with vocalist Theo Bleckmann. In November 2019, Andres curated (and performed in) “American Perspective,” a concert with the Cincinnati Symphony, André de Ridder, Dance Heginbotham, and Inbal Segev, playing his cello concerto, Upstate Obscura.

During the “quiet” season of 2020–21, Timo Andres built an impressive library of gorgeous music films, featuring a deep range of repertoire which he performed, recorded, engineered, directed, and edited from home. He shares these films with an engaged international subscriber audience on his YouTube channel. The project was kicked off when his April 29, 2020 solo recital debut for Carnegie Hall was cancelled because of the pandemic; over the next few months, he created a bespoke YouTube playlist exploring the program (featuring works by John Adams, Philip Glass, Brad Mehldau, Laurie Anderson, himself, and a new commission from Gabriella Smith, et al).

In the summer of 2021, Andres was presented in two concerts by San Francisco Performances, including a chamber music concert with Jennifer Koh and Jay Campbell, and a solo recital. He is a 2021 Ojai Music Festival Artist, where he performs both a solo recital and Ingram Marshall’s Flow with John Adams and the OMF Orchestra (on a program with his own Running Theme). 2021–22 also includes the premiere of a new composition for concert:nova, a solo work for cellist Johannes Moser; a piece for the Myriad Trio; and a solo recital for the Kaufman Music Center in New York City.

A Nonesuch Records artist, Timo Andres is featured as composer and pianist on the May 2020 release I Still Play, an album comprising a set of piano pieces written by himself and fellow Nonesuch artists for Chairman Emeritus Bob Hurwitz. A Yale School of Music graduate, he is a Yamaha/Bösendorfer Artist and is on the composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music at the New School.