andPlay is committed to expanding the existing violin/viola duo repertoire by commissioning new works and actively collaborating with living artists. The New York City-based duo of Maya Bennardo, violin, and Hannah Levinson, viola, first played to an eager crowd on Fire Island in the summer of 2012 and has since commissioned over forty-five works.

Collaboration is an integral part of andPlay’s artistic process; the ensemble has worked closely with composers including Carolyn Chen, Andrew McIntosh, Mariel Roberts, Lester St. Louis, and Zeynep Toraman. andPlay’s 2023-4 season includes performances in Cleveland and New York City, appearances at Chicago’s Frequency Festival and the Bowling Green State University New Music Fesitval, and residencies at CSU Stanislaus and Ohio University. This season also features the release of andPlay’s second full-length album, Translucent Harmonies, and premieres of new works by Lydia Winsor Brindamour, Julie Herndon (a Chamber Music America Classical Commission), and Emily Praetorius. In a commitment to accessibility, andPlay continues to use livestream and virtual tools as additional ways to connect with audiences across the world.

andPlay’s second album, Translucent Harmonies (2023) was released in September 2023 on the UK-label, Another Timbre. Featuring works by Catherine Lamb and Kristofer Svensson, the album was included on Bandcamp’s “Best Contemporary Classical: September 2023” and Steve Smith’s “2023, for the record.” Previously, andPlay’s cassette release of Victoria Cheah’s a butterfly on your shoulder into years and years to come (2022, Dinzu Artefacts) was also listed on Bandcamp’s “Best Experimental Music: March 2022.” andPlay’s debut album, playlist (2019, New Focus Recordings), features world premiere studio recordings of works by Ashkan Behzadi, David Bird, and Clara Iannotta. playlist was recorded as part of andPlay’s Artist Residency at EMPAC (Troy, NY) and was listed on Bandcamp’s “Best Contemporary Classical: October 2019.”

Recent highlights include a five-city tour in Sweden, appearances on the Frequency Festival (Chicago), the Twin Cities New Music Festival (St. Paul) and Re:Sound Festival (Cleveland), and a recording residency at EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Troy, NY). The duo has also performed at venues including the Center for New Music (San Francisco), Scandinavia House (New York), Roulette (New York), Monk Space (Los Angeles), Short North Stage (Columbus), and the Toledo Museum of Art.

Beyond the concert stage, Maya and Hannah are passionate educators offering in-person and virtual workshops in contemporary string techniques, chamber music coaching and composition notation for strings. They have given performances and masterclasses at Arizona State University, UC Santa Cruz, Western Connecticut State University, Otterbein University, Bowling Green State University and were Artists-in-Residence at the Snow Pond Composers Workshop (Sidney, ME) and the Wildflower Composers Festival (Philadelphia). Since 2019, their audience engagement series, andPlay (in) Conversation, presents free events for adults and children to look inside the collaborative process of creating new music.

andPlay is the recipient of two Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning grants, most recently in 2022 with composer Julie Herndon. andPlay is also supported by granting organizations including New York Council on the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, the Amphion Foundation, and New Music USA.

Maya and Hannah met while studying at Oberlin Conservatory and continued their educations at New York University and the Manhattan School of Music.