Conrad Tao

Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer, and has been dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by the New York Times, a “thoughtful and mature composer” by NPR, and “ferociously talented” by TimeOut New York. In June of 2011, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the Department of Education named Tao a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts awarded him a YoungArts gold medal in music. Later that year, Tao was named a Gilmore Young Artist, an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. In May of 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Tao’s 2017-18 season includes his Lincoln Center debut with a solo recital including a work by American composer Jason Eckhardt, a residency with the Utah Symphony performing both Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and debut engagements with the Atlanta Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and Seattle Symphony. Tao will both perform in his own recital and have a new work composed for Paul Huang and Orion Weiss performed at Washington Performing Arts Society, and opens the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra’s season with the world premiere of a new commissioned work, Over. Additionally, a new multimedia work, Ceremony, developed with vocalist Charmaine Lee, will receive its premiere at Brooklyn’s Roulette.

Outside of the U.S., Tao has been re-invited to perform with the Berner Symphoniker and Mario Venzago in Switzerland, and will also make his debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and James Gaffigan. He will also return to Italy with the Orchestra Verdi Milano and Vladimir Fedoseev, and Malaysia with the Malaysian Philharmonic and Eiji Oue.

This busy season comes after recent performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Stéphane Denève (Conrad’s SPAC debut), Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival with Carlos Kalmar, and premieres of his commissions by the Pacific Symphony, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, and Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Conrad also had an on-stage performance role in the world premiere of David Lang’s the loser at BAM and an acclaimed recital in Unison Media’s Crypt Sessions series.