Andres-Kaplan Philharmonic
“Dazzling on the ivories”
Timo Andres & David Kaplan
The Andres-Kaplan Philharmonic is the four-hands duo of pianists Timo Andres and pianist David Kaplan. Described as “quietly charismatic” by The New Yorker, they have performed together since 2006, when they were students at the Yale School of Music. Since then, their numerous appearances include the National Gallery in Washington, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and in New York’s National Sawdust, Barge Music, and le Poisson Rouge. Since their debut at London’s Barbican Centre in 2014, they have been re-invited over five times as recitalists, soloists, and collaborators.
They have carved out a distinctive niche of repertoire that includes transcriptions of major orchestral works such as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, contemporary bulwarks such as Steve Reich’s Piano Phase and John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction, and a number of Andres’ own works written specially for the pair. They are praised for “dazzling on the ivories” in Shy and Mighty, the hour long two piano album released by Nonesuch Records, and they are currently developing a recording of their own unique arrangement of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for two pianos, to be released next year.
Timo and David have collaborated with Third Coast Percussion, the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolis Ensemble, and with the organist James McVinnie on a reprise of Philip Glass’s landmark Music in 12 Parts, which they were the first musicians to perform outside the Philip Glass Ensemble. In 2017, they premiered a new two-piano concerto by Timo (Steady Hand) with the Britten Sinfonia and conductor Benjamin Shwartz, as well as John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music for two pianos, winds, and voices, and in a jazz-inspired program featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs. Both David and Timo are proud to be Yamaha/Bösendorfer Artists, share a passion for cooking, and can often be found visiting the same Brooklyn tailor shops.
Donnacha dennehy: Between
For 2026, Irish-American Composer Donnacha Dennehy has composed a poignant and scintillating work, Between, reflecting on his identity as an emigrant/immigrant. Recently premiered at the Kilkenny Festival in Ireland, it will be performed at the Ojai Festival, at Kaufmann Music Center in New York City, and in Sydney Australia in 2027.
Brendan Finan of the Journal of Music in Ireland wrote:
“Written for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Dennehy’s Between is written as a document by an immigrant to America on immigration to America. This opened with a slow, almost sentimental rising motif, a little different each time it returned, but always rising until the first change in direction signalled a change in dynamics as well. There were Dennehy hallmarks throughout – scintillating textures and electric tension – as well as an impressive diversity of mood across the work’s seven movements. The performance was extraordinary, with Andres and Kaplan bringing some effects I’ve rarely seen, like the high-wire acrobatics as the sixth movement bounced between hands, registers and pianos, or both pianists’ ability to perform rapidly repeated notes in the fifth movement, sounding not so much like Martha Argerich’s machine-gun technique as a harp’s bisbigliando.”
