PRESS RELEASE
January 31, 2024
Timo Andres New Album Releasing March 22 on Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch releases composer Timo Andres’ new studio album, The Blind Banister, on March 22, 2024 featuring pianist Timo Andres, cellist Inbal Segev, and Metropolis Ensemble conducted by Andrew Cyr.
Behind the scenes recording at Adelphi University Performing Arts Center in June 2023. Photos courtesy of Henry Wang and Inbal Segev.
Album cover for “The Blind Banister”
New York, NY— Nonesuch releases composer/pianist Timo Andres’ new album, The Blind Banister, on March 22, 2024. The album comprises three works by Andres: the composer’s third piano concerto, The Blind Banister, with Andres as soloist, and Upstate Obscura for chamber orchestra and cello, with soloist Inbal Segev—both of which feature Metropolis Ensemble and conductor Andrew Cyr—and the solo piano piece Colorful History, also performed by the composer. The third movement of Upstate Obscura, “Vanishing Point,” is available today.
The album was recorded in June 2023 at Adelphi University Performing Arts Center with Grammy-winning producer, Silas Brown.
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The Blind Banister was written for pianist Jonathan Biss to be performed alongside Beethoven’s second concerto. This work was commissioned by St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Andres says, “My piece is not a pastiche or an exercise in palimpsest. It doesn’t quote or reference Beethoven. There are some surface similarities to his concerto (a three-movement structure, a B–flat tonal center) but these are mostly red herrings. The best way I can describe my approach to writing the piece is: I started writing my own cadenza to Beethoven’s concerto, and ended up devouring it from the inside out.” The piece was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016.
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Upstate Obscura takes its inspiration from American painter John Vanderlyn’s Panoramic View of the Palace and Gardens of Versailles. This cello concerto with three movements was co-commissioned by Inbal Segev for Metropolis Ensemble and MetLiveArts. The work was presented at our concert, Time Travelers to Versailles at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring Metropolis artists and early-music ensemble TENET.
Andres says, “In taking on a quintessentially French subject, Vanderlyn somehow came up with something that feels American; it seems to regard Versailles at a bemused distance, with that characteristically American distrust of anything unnecessarily fanciful. My plan was to start with fragments of musical ornament from the French Baroque tradition—like loose chunks of masonry—and stretch them out until they no longer felt like ornaments ... The solo cello moves … just as a viewer might explore a virtual world—at times wandering, at times with purpose.”
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Colorful History was commissioned by pianist Russell Hirshfield in 2021. Andres describes the album’s solo piano work: “This is a chaconne, stemming from a single augmented triad, and following the course of various directions it suggests. I think of this as a kind of extended metaphor for historical events, and how they echo each other without literally repeating.”
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Andres is a fixture in the Metropolis Ensemble community, from solo confections like Small Wonder for cellist Ashley Bathgate to bold experiments like Mozart’s re-composed Coronation concerto from the 2013 studio album, Home Stretch, that earned producer David Frost a Grammy Award.
He makes his Carnegie Hall solo debut on February 23, performing, among other works, Etude No. 20 by Philip Glass, and the world premiere of his own new composition, Fiddlehead. The debut was originally scheduled for April 2020, as a performance of the pieces from the Nonesuch album I Still Play. When the pandemic halted it, Andres instead streamed the recital on YouTube. The Glass Etudes recently were published in a new box set folio that Andres co-edited, and he performs some of them on NPR’s Tiny Desk series; the episode premieres on January 31.
About Timo Andres
Timo Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY. His 2013 Nonesuch album of orchestral works, Home Stretch, has been hailed for its “playful intelligence and individuality,” (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.”
Current season highlights include a solo recital debut for Carnegie Hall, new commissions for the Moab Music Festival and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, a tour with the Calder Quartet including performances at San Francisco Performances and Chamber Music Albuquerque, and the world premiere of a piano concerto for Aaron Diehl at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by John Adams. Andres’ orchestrations and arrangements for Justin Peck’s new production of Sufjan Stevens’s Illinoise were premiered in a sold-out summer 2023 run at The Fisher Center at Bard; the production is currently at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and arrives in March at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. Andres’ collaborations with Sufjan Stevens also include his May 2023 recording with Conor Hanick of Stevens’s latest album, Reflections; arrangements of ballets for New York City Ballet; and a solo piano album, The Decalogue. Timo Andres performed Philip Glass’ Etudes at Lincoln Center and in March in LA. More »
About Inbal Segev
Inbal Segev is “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone). Combining “thrillingly projected, vibrato-rich playing” (Washington Post) with “complete dedication and high intelligence” (San Francisco Classical Voice), she makes solo appearances at leading international venues and with preeminent orchestras and conductors worldwide. Celebrated for her fresh insights into music’s great masterworks, the Israeli American cellist is equally committed to reinvigorating the cello repertoire, and has commissioned and premiered major new works from an international who’s who of today’s foremost contemporary composers. More »
About Metropolis Ensemble
Metropolis Ensemble is a Grammy-nominated nonprofit organization dedicated to commissioning and producing ambitious creative projects and expanding opportunities for emerging professional musical creators and performers to inspire audiences. They partner with world-class institutions to create, commission, and produce site-specific performances, new works, recordings, and digital experiences. More »
About Andrew Cyr
A champion of new work, Grammy-nominated conductor Andrew Cyr has led premiere performances at venues ranging from Cité de la Musique (Paris, FR), The Met Museum, Celebrate Brooklyn(!), New Victory Theatre, Hamer Hall (Melbourne, AU), Radio City Music Hall, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, and the Tonight Show. Cyr’s work as conductor has been described by Esa-Pekka Salonen as “precise, rhythmically incisive and fluid. He made complex new pieces sound natural and organic.” Described as a “prominent influence in the world of newly emerging music” (Washington Post), Cyr’s passion for creating new platforms for outstanding composers and performing artists led him to found Metropolis Ensemble in 2006. More »
About Silas Brown
Silas Brown is a Grammy Award-winning New York City area producer, engineer, and mastering engineer specializing in classical and jazz recordings. He has more than 25 years of production credits including many Grammy Winning and Nominated recordings. He has received four Grammy Awards to date. Silas’s 9.1.4 immersive studio, Legacy Sound, is approved by Apple and Universal Music for Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio. Since moving into immersive mixing and mastering, Silas has worked on new Atmos and Spatial Audio projects including releases for the Chicago Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and many others. Silas is an Assistant Professor in the Music and Technology Department at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music. More »
About Nonesuch Records
Founded in 1964, Nonesuch Records has grown to pursue a broad mission, including classical music, contemporary music, jazz, music theatre, traditional American and world music, popular and alternative music. Metropolis Ensemble has collaborated with Nonesuch on multiple albums, including Tyondai Braxton: Telekinesis (2022), William Brittelle: Spiritual America (2019), and Timo Andres: Home Stretch (2013). More »
About MetLiveArts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Live Arts commissions and presents new works of performance: music, movement, sound, and related hybrids. This singular body of work furthers The Met’s commitment to living artists, deepens connections between audiences and works of art, and introduces untested modes of performance. Metropolis Ensemble has collaborated with MetLiveArts on several projects, including Matthew Evan Taylor: Life Returns (2022), Postcards to The Met (2021), and Time Travelers to Versailles (2018). More »
Press Contacts
Armistead Booker, Metropolis Ensemble
press@metropolisensemble.org
(757) 870-4591
Nonesuch Records
publicity@nonesuch.com
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