IGNORE THE CONDUCTOR.(composer Timothy Andres)(Interview)

When Timothy Andres was seven, his father, a computer specialist, brought home a teach-yourself-piano computer program. Andres was done with it in three weeks. He is now a freshman at Yale, and his musical progress is still accelerating. For one thing, he is a formidable pianist who has the measure of Charles Ives's towering "Concord Sonata." He is also a composer, with a piano sonata, a piano concerto, and a symphony to his credit. Most notably, his music is beginning to show an individual voice, which is the hardest thing for a composer to achieve.

What happens when you tell your emo-listening, hip-hop-dancing, ironically "American Idol"-analyzing classmates ...