ConradTao
- Piano


About Conrad
Conrad Tao is a pianist and composer celebrated for his boundary-defying artistry as well as his powerful performances of traditional repertoire. Described by New York Magazine as “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music,” and praised by The New York Times for his “probing intellect and open-hearted vision,” Tao appears regularly as a soloist with leading orchestras and at major venues across the world.
In the 2025–26 season, Tao returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as both soloist and recitalist, performing Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Karina Canellakis and later presenting a recital program featuring Gershwin song arrangements alongside works by Schoenberg, Strayhorn, Schumann, and others. Recital highlights include debuts at Berlin’s Philharmonie and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, as well as returns to Klavierfestival Ruhr, and to the Celebrity Series of Boston, and the Seattle Symphony with Poetry and Fairy Tales, a program blending works by David Fulmer, Rebecca Saunders, Todd Moellenberg, Brahms, and Ravel.
Tao reunites with Robert Spano for performances of John Adams’ Century Rolls (San Diego Symphony) and Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety (Atlanta Symphony). He also joins Matthias Pintscher and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin for Pintscher’s NUR, and travels to Tokyo to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 with the NHK Symphony and Jaap van Zweden. He makes his harpsichord debut at Princeton University in Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s Dies Irae.
Recent highlights include his return to Carnegie Hall with Debussy’s 12 Études and his original composition Keyed In, as well as appearances with the San Francisco Symphony and Nicholas Collon, Philadelphia Orchestra and Marin Alsop, Boston Symphony and Dima Slobodeniouk, New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden, and Cleveland Orchestra and Jahja Ling. In 2024, he also toured Europe with the Kansas City Symphony and Matthias Pintscher to mark the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue, with sold-out performances at the Elbphilharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, and Concertgebouw.
Tao continues performing his own works, including Flung Out, an homage to Gershwin, which he played recently at the Aspen Festival, and The Hand, a companion to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which was commissioned and performed by the Kansas City Symphony. His orchestral work Everything Must Go premiered with the New York Philharmonic and later in Europe with the Antwerp Symphony. He also tours Counterpoint, his collaboration with dancer Caleb Teicher, and performs regularly with the Junction Trio alongside Stefan Jackiw and Jay Campbell. Additional recent collaborators include vocalist Charmaine Lee, artist Avram Finkelstein, choreographer Miguel Gutierrez, and brass quartet The Westerlies.
Tao’s acclaimed recordings include Voyages, Pictures, and American Rage (all on Warner), as well as the loser by David Lang, and Bricolage with The Westerlies.
He is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for his collaboration with Caleb Teicher on More Forever.
Representation
European management with Askonas Holt
Partner Managers:
Opus 3 Artists (general management)
Season Highlights
Photos
Selected Repertoire
Adams
Century Rolls
Bartok
Piano Concerto No.3
Beethoven
Piano Concerto No.1, Op.15 • Piano Concerto No.4, Op.58 • Piano Concerto No.5, Op.73
Bernstein
Age of Anxiety
Brahms
Piano Concerto No.1, Op.15
Chopin
Piano Concerto No.1, Op.11
Gershwin
Piano Concerto in F major • Rhapsody in Blue
Liszt
Piano Concerto No.1 in E-flat major
Mendelssohn
Piano Concerto No.1, Op.25
Mozart
Piano Concerto No.9 in E-flat major, K.271 • Piano Concerto No.12 in A major, K.414 • Piano Concerto No.17 in G major, K.453 • Piano Concerto No.19 in F major, K.459 • Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K.466 • Piano Concerto No.21 in C major, K.467 • Piano Concerto No.22 in E-flat major, K.482 • Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K.488 • Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor, K.491 • Piano Concerto No.25 in C major, K.503
Norman
Suspend
Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No.1, Op10 • Piano Concerto No. 2, Op.16 • Piano Concerto No. 3, Op.26
Rachmaninoff
Étude-tableau in A Minor, No. 2, Op.39 • Piano Concerto No. 2, Op.18 • Piano Concerto No. 3, Op.30 • Piano Concerto No. 4, Op 40 • Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43
Ravel
Piano Concerto in G major, M.83
Schumann
Piano Concerto, Op.54
Shostakovich
Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, Op.35
Tao
An Adjustment • Companion piece to Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1, Op.15 • Flung Out (companion piece to Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue) • The Oneiroi in New York • Spoonfuls
Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No.1, Op.23
Sample Programmes
Brahms: Klavierstücke, Op. 118 I. Intermezzo David Fulmer: I have loved a stream and a shadow (With glitter of sun-rays, Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven) I. Brahms: Klavierstücke, Op. 118 II. Intermezzo III. Ballade IV. Intermezzo Rebecca Saunders: Mirror, mirror on the wall Brahms: Klavierstücke, Op. 118 V. Romanze — intermission — Todd Moellenberg: Leg of Lamb (after Bernadette Mayer) David Fulmer: I have loved a stream and a shadow II. — III. Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit Ondine Le gibet Scarbo Brahms: Klavierstücke, Op. 118 VI. Intermezzo
Debussy: Etudes Book I Tao: Improvisation for Lumatone Arlen/Tatum: Over the Rainbow (trans. Conrad Tao) Tao: Keyed In Schumann: Auf einer Burg (arr. Conrad Tao for Lumatone) Debussy: Etudes Book II
News
Press
Cleveland Orchestra presents Conrad Tao in recital
Severance Music Center, ClevelandMay 2024The extraordinary Conrad Tao expertly curated and stunningly played a program of solo piano music by Sergei Rachmanioff and composers who Tao said were influenced by the great Russian pianist’s music.
- cleveland.com
- 18 May 2024
Chicago Symphony, Gershwin Concerto in F Major conducted by James Gaffigan
Chicago Symphony HallOct 2023 - Oct 2023For a new vista on fun, run, don’t walk, to this weekend’s Chicago Symphony concerts, conducted by James Gaffigan. They’re exhilarating, life-affirming, ecstatic and erudite. Thank Conrad Tao for that… From Tao’s very first entrance, it was clear listeners were in the presence of a creative supernova… face-melting virtuosity, profundity and invention.
La Jolla Music Society SummerFest
The Conrad, La JollaAug 2023Conrad Tao is a magical pianist, with a scholar’s mind wrapped in an almost impossible technique. Alternatively ecstatic, logical, monstrous, his playing conveyed all the complexity and terror of the work, set into relief through an unflinching attention to every disturbing detail and an unflagging musical stamina.
- San Diego Tribune
- 28 August 2023
Cleveland Orchestra, John Adams' Century Rolls conducted by David Robertson
Blossom Music CenterAug 2023A sublime noteworthy performance... (Tao) doesn’t just play every rhythmic motif from jagged punches to sublime bits of melody, but truly embodies them.
- cleveland.com
- 09 August 2023
Profile of Conrad Tao in The New York Times
Nov 2019Conrad Tao was never just another prodigy.
- The New York Times
- 15 November 2019