Conrad Tao

“AN EXPLOSIVE FORCE…Tao possesses startling technical elan and an ability to communicate clearly, no matter how thorny a score may become. He also has a hefty dash of charm.” – Baltimore Sun

Conrad Tao is a leader of the new generation of classical music. The pianist and composer has amassed a steady stream of awards and critical acclaim for his performances, compositions and recordings. A former prodigy, Conrad has emerged as a mature, thoughtful and thought-provoking artist with both a singular vision and the talent to realize it. Conrad’s commitment to new music extends far beyond his own compositions - he dedicates significant time and resources to performing, commissioning and curating many other bright new voices. His ceaseless exploration also lends a new, contemporary vitality to his much-lauded performances of the core repertory, further distinguishing him as one of the most compelling forces on the scene today.

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. His accolades and awards include being a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a YoungArts gold medal-winner in music, a Gilmore Young Artist, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant-winner. Tao’s career as a composer has garnered eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and the Carlos Surinach Prize from BMI. In the 2013-14 season, while serving as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s artist-in-residence, Tao premiered his orchestral composition, The world is very different now. Commissioned in observance of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the work was described by the New York Times as “shapely and powerful.” In September 2015, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia premiered his piano concerto An Adjustment, with Tao at the piano. The Philadelphia Inquirer declared the piece abundant in “compositional magic,” a “most imaginative [integration of] spiritual post-Romanticism and ‘90s club music.” A Warner Classics recording artist, Tao’s first two albums Voyages and Pictures have been praised by NPR, The New York Times, The New Yorker’s Alex Ross, and many more.

PROGRAM:

Tao, Conrad (b. 1994) Improvisation

Adams, John (b. 1947) China Gates

Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750) Chromatic fantasia and fugue in D minor, BWV903

Eckardt, Jason (b. 1971) Antennaria plantaginifolia: “Pussytoes”

Schumann, Robert (1810-1856) Kinderszenen, Op.15

Hersch, Fred (b. 1955) Pastorale (Dedicated to Robert Schumann)

Tao, Conrad (b. 1994) Keyed In

Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827) Piano Sonata no. 31 in A flat major, Op.110