CONRAD TAO
LATIN AMERICA
Conrad Tao has performed around the world as a pianist and composer and has been described by The New York Times as a musician of "exploring intellect and open-hearted vision." He received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist, an honor given every two years that highlights America's most promising rising pianists. As a composer, he also received a 2019 New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for Best Sound Design/Music Composition for his work on More Forever, a collaboration with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher.
Conrad Tao has recently performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony. In Season 20-21 he was featured with a series of concerts and interviews with the Finnish Radio Symphony, performing the Piano Concerto no. 4 by Beethoven with Hannu Lintu conducting, as well as Andrew Norman's Suspend conducted by Sakari Oramo, live on television. While most performances in Season 20-21 were canceled due to the COVID pandemic, Conrad appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony and Louis Langrée, returning to the Seattle Symphony to perform Concert No. Beethoven's 4. Other invitations included the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco and New Jersey Symphonies, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. His creation with Caleb Teicher, More Forever, commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum, was planned for tours across the United States, including Dance Cleveland and Toronto's Fall for Dance. Tao and Teicher's latest collaboration for Works & Process, called Rhapsody in Blue, kicked off the Guggenheim's return to live performances and was hailed by The New York Times as "monumental." The duo also offered the inaugural virtual recital of the Library of Congress Concert season.
In the 2019-20 season, Tao was presented in recital by Carnegie Hall, performing works by David Lang, Bach, Julia Wolfe, Jason Eckhardt, Carter, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann. He also made his recital debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall, where the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented him with works by Copland and Frederic Rzewski. Following his debut at the Blossom Music Center, the Cleveland Orchestra invited Tao to perform at Severance Hall in a special program featuring music by Mary Lou Williams and Ligeti, and improvisations with pianist Aaron Diehl. After her debut with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, her comeback date was canceled due to COVID; however, he was invited to give a streaming recital in his Great Performers series, where he performed works by Felipe Lara, Crawford Seeger, Tania León, David Lang and Beethoven.
In the 2018-19 season, the New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden performed the world premiere of Tao's Everything Must Go. The European premiere will take place in Season 21-22 with the Antwerp Symphony. Other recent performances of his compositions include his own performance of The Oneiroi in New York with the Seattle Symphony and Spoonfuls with the IRIS Orchestra. His Violin Concerto for Stefan Jackiw will premiere in the 21-22 season.
Other recent highlights include Tao's Los Angeles Opera debut in the West Coast premiere of David Lang's adaptation of Thomas Bernhard's The Loser. In Europe, he has been heard with the Swedish Radio Symphony in recital and with Andrew Norman's Suspend with conductor Susanna Mälkki; he also recently returned to the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.
A Warner Classics artist, Tao's debut record, Voyages, was described as a "spiky debut" by Alex Ross of The New Yorker. Of the album, National Public Radio wrote: "Tao proves himself a musician of deep intellectual and emotional means, as this album's careful programming proclaims." His next album, Pictures, featuring works by David Lang, Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter, Mussorgsky and Tao himself, was hailed by The New York Times as "a fascinating album [by] a thoughtful artist and dynamic performer... played with enormous imagination, color and mastery." His third album, American Rage, featuring works by Julia Wolfe, Frederic Rzewski, and Aaron Copland, was released in the fall of 2019.
Conrad has become a favorite of the Mexican public. His first performance in Mexico and Latin America occurred in June 2008 (when he was 14 years old) with a successful recital at the Blas Galindo Auditorium of the National Center for the Arts. Since then, he has performed in recitals at the International Cervantino Festival, at the Guanajuato Cultural Forum, and as a soloist with the Philharmonic of Mexico City, Jalisco and UNAM, the National Symphony of Mexico, of the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon and Michoacan.
Conrad Tao was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1984. He studied piano with Emilio del Rosario in Chicago, at the Juilliard School and Columbia University under the guidance of Yoheved Kaplinsky, and composition with Christopher Theofanidis.
