PRESS

Here is some recent press acclaim for Conrad Tao.  You can also view his press archive.

Virtuoso Conrad Tao carries Beethoven’s burden for Spokane Symphony

- The Spokesman-Review (May 2013)

At 18, pianist Tao shows deep and mature artistry in Beethoven

- The Miami Herald (April 2013)

Jaap van Zweden puts fresh manpower into Mahler

“Eighteen-year-old Chinese-American pianist Conrad Tao was the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No21. Excellently partnered by the orchestra, he generated some wonderful subtleties of phrasing during the opening movement, a light-as-air sense of line in the next and a different glint in the eye for every few bars of the finale.”

“He played Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No6 as an encore with impressive panache and musicianship. The rapt attention and half smiles on the orchestra’s faces said more than I can achieve in a few words here. The buzz in the interval was how his mix of virtuosity, eccentricity and showmanship came in just the right proportions, notwithstanding the red socks.”

- South China Morning Post (February 2013)

Pianist Conrad Tao dazzles in early SLSO debut

“Remember the name Conrad Tao. You’re going to be hearing a lot about him.  Tao, who was to make his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut next season, stepped in to play Sergei Prokofiev’s tricky Piano Concerto No. 3 with the SLSO on less than three days’ notice, when an ailing Markus Groh had to cancel.”

“The Prokofiev is a big sweeping score that requires wit on the part of its interpreter while making intense technical demands. Tao flung it all off with insouciant ease and apparent enjoyment, in a real triumph that was fully supported and shared by the conductor and orchestra, in a score that’s a challenge for everyone.  Tao’s flair and musicality won him a huge ovation, which he rewarded with an equally demanding encore.”

- St. Louis Post-Dispatch (February 2013)

Review: Tao, LSO performance enraptures audience

“Guest pianist Conrad Tao alternated between pounding rhythms and familiar melodies that ran through Rachmaninoff’s 24 variations in the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” Tao, an 18-year old Chinese American, played with intensity and control, at times seeming to curl into the keyboard and then lean back, nodding his head furiously to the beat..”

“Tao impressed the Lubbock audience, whose members jumped to their feet immediately after the piece and remained standing until his encore performance…Tao had it all — lyricism, drama and joy. One expects flashy technique from a young virtuoso, but he had poetry about him.”

- Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (January 2013)

A touch of Tao with Pacific Symphony standards

“This was a youthful performance (in a good way), enthusiastic and strongly felt. At the same time, he revealed a real understanding of the score [Grieg's Piano Concerto] in his crisply inflected and strongly sculpted fortissimos and effervescent scherzando playing. His phrasing was consistently alert and active, shaded and colored sensitively, but it never put on airs. The music was the thing. St.Clair and the orchestra supported him handsomely, and caught Tao’s fire.”

- The OC Register (October 2012)

Teen pianist ‘jaw dropping’ in Rachmaninoff with ASO

“What lingered most was 18-year-old pianist Conrad Tao’s jaw-dropping performance in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3…Tao carefully shaped the work’s solemn opening with an even-tempered hand. Gradually, the waves of emotion welled, with seemingly endless, flawlessly executed arpeggios floating between patches of dreamy revelry.”

“Tao charted a dark, furious course through the first movement cadenza, then, hunched over the keyboard, rocking back and forth and occasionally humming to himself, he tackled the mood changes of the second with focused rapture.”

- The Morning Call (October 2012)

Concert Review: Conrad Tao gives Beethoven concerto intelligent treatment

“The concerto soloist was the 18-year-old Conrad Tao, a young man whose talent is well beyond the ordinary. His interpretation of Friday’s concerto was balanced and intelligent.He didn’t just toss off a bunch of notes, but neither did he plumb the score for depths it doesn’t possess. This is especially important in the slow movement where it is easy to drift into sentimentality and/or pretension. ”

“The outer movements were executed with panache. The first movement cadenza was especially gratifying.”

- Ottawa Citizen (September 2012)

Oklahoma City Philharmonic opens 24th season in grand fashion

“Musical precociousness can manifest itself in countless ways, from the gifted child who loves to boast about his accomplishments to those who channel their talents into more productive outcomes.

Conrad Tao clearly belongs to the latter group, a pianist of exceptional talent who made a spectacular debut on the Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s 2012-13 season opener. In a lifetime of concertgoing, I’ve encountered many artists who use music to play the piano. Tao uses the piano to make music.”

- The Oklahoman (September 2012)

Review: Spano, McGegan and raft of pianists lift Aspen Music Fest opening weekend

“It was Tao, who just turned 18, who delivered the most arresting performance, attacking the [Gershwin's] Second Rhapsody with a lethal combination of power, rhythmic thrust, technical perfection and sheer joy.”

- The Aspen Times (July 2012)

It’s a Wrap! Dvorak, Dvorak, Dvorak at the Montreal Chamber Fest

“Featuring a high-flying gaggle of Canadian quartets, the concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony and a rare sighting of artistic director Denis Brott in his cellist’s chair. And yet, with all the strings, it was a 17-year-old keyboard polymath from NYC named Conrad Tao, who stole the show with a once-in-a-lifetime performance of the rarely-encountered American Suite, Op. 98.”

“Tao is ready for his own TV show: he plays music as if the composer were at his side, with color, joy and spontaneous poetry. He composes, studies, researches, writes. He uses words like “gestation” when he talks. Like that whiz kid on the West Coast, Conrad Tao should be licensed to operate by the time he’s 21.”

- Strings Magazine (June 2012)

Conrad Tao, prodigiously talented at 17, delights Gilmore Keyboard Festival crowd at Stetson Chapel

“The program began with Bach’s Italian Concerto. Tao gave the first movement concerto-like contrasts, crafted a stunning cantilena melody that hummed its way through the soulful slow movement, and concluded with a bravura finale.  Next were Tao’s own compositions: the captivating “Three Songs” (2010), intended to decode the relationship between a vocal line and its accompaniment (a theme throughout the afternoon). The contemplative “Cocoon” featured a searching melody paired with luscious harmonies. “Smoke” evoked the impressionistic landscapes of Debussy and Ravel. Floating clouds of music collided and reformed as the melody gradually found peace. “Catharsis” was a riot of color and sonorities. ”

- Kalamazoo Gazette (May 2012)

Gilmore Young Artist Conrad Tao gives stupendous performance in recital at Calvin College

“It was a stupendous performance, covering a considerable range of possibilities for the piano plus some 275 years of musical composition, including Tao’s own compositions.  Gleaming Bach, graceful Chopin, mighty Liszt, and mind-boggling Stravinsky poured from Tao’s fingers for a full house in the new, 250-seat recital hall in Calvin College’s Covenant Fine Arts Center, a lovely room to the eye as well as the ear.  The 18-year-old musician’s account of Igor Stravinsky’s “Three Scenes from Petrushka” was more than enough to show Tao had the talent and temperament for a major career.”

- Grand Rapids Press (May 2012)

A Promising Star, Rising Above the Horizon

“That Mr. Tao, who gave his first recital at 4, is hugely gifted was evident from the outset. He opened with a cleanly articulated, fluid and fleet rendition of Bach’s “Italian” Concerto. He played the slow second movement with poise and feeling. His impressive technique allows him to navigate difficult works with ease; the finale of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata unfolded in an exciting blaze of notes…He brought lovely colors and poetic nuances to three works by Liszt: “Au bord d’une Source,” “Vallée d’Obermann” and the “Rigoletto” Paraphrase…”

- The New York Times (Mar. 2012)

Conrad Tao, 17, shows fully mature virtuosity in Rachmaninoff

“Although [Tao] is clearly a master of the keyboard, his playing was so smooth and fluent that the difficulty of the work was never at the forefront; nor was there ever a hint of the look-how-hard-this-is virtuosity that marks the playing of some young keyboard phenoms. He could be grand, as in the sweeping swirls of notes that open the last movement, and his technical ability was apparent throughout, as he easily handled the rapid chords, runs and other challenges of a concerto composed by one of history’s great virtuosos.  But it was his playing of Rachmaninoff’s melodic passages that really distinguished this performance, as Tao’s natural musicality brought out the concerto’s smoky, Romantic quality.”

- The Classical Review (Jan. 2012)

Piano phenom, 17, makes a blazing debut with the DSO

“Whatever the age cut-off may be for child prodigies, 17-year-old pianist Conrad Tao has left that category somewhere back in his young past. To judge from his debut Saturday night with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Tao already owns a place among the world’s musical virtuosos. Prodigious he is indeed.  To put it plainly, Tao blew the doors off Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor with a performance that was no less seductive in its lyrical beauty than hair-raising in its technical brilliance.”

- The Detroit News (Jan. 2012)

Utah Symphony Catches a Rising Star: Pianist Conrad Tao

“Conrad Tao is for real. The 17-year-old American pianist, whose star has only grown brighter in the 15 months since he bowled over the Abravanel Hall crowd as a last-minute substitute for Horacio Gutiérrez in Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody, showed that his return invitation was well-earned. His bravura performance of another crowd-pleasing warhorse, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, elicited a rowdy ovation from the near-sellout house on Friday.”

- Salt Lake Tribune (Jan. 2012)

 17-year-old Pianist Amazes at Cliburn Concerts

“Tao isn’t yet old enough to enter the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, but in a very substantial program at Bass Performance Hall he demonstrated surer technical command and more probing musicianship than most of the competition’s oldest contestants. This is a major talent.  Rarely has Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata had a more gripping performance, by turns mysterious and defiant. The mere chords of the second-movement theme were balanced with exquisite sensitivity to harmonic implications.”

- Dallas Morning News (Sep. 2011)

Conrad Tao Dazzles Cliburn Audience

“he continually uncovered the energy and emotional underpinnings inherent in this music, reaching toward the timeless, universal qualities it contains…Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata was equally breathtaking… [as was] his ability, through subtle give and take of tempo, to make these works of Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and even Stravinsky sing.”

– Dallas Magazine (Sep. 2011)

Sub in Cliburn Concert proves spectacular

“The often exuberant program was cleanly played and technically brilliant and imparted a sense of personality…”

- Star-Telegram (Sep. 2011)

George Gershwin, Aaron Copland and Conrad Tao Thrill at JSO Opening Concert

“17-year-old Conrad Tao was the brilliant pianist for George Gershwin’s (1898-1937) Concerto in F Major for Piano and Orchestra. Tao is seasoned beyond his years and he was immediately immersed in the music and in his responsibility to interpret Gershwin’s piece to the audience… If anyone could pull off the Gershwin-esque flair, it was Tao. The young soloist was, in a word, impressive.”

- Season Ticket (Sep. 2011)

 Conrad Tao Plays Rachmaninoff with Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony

“In a dashing account of Rachmaninoff’s ‘Rhapsody,’ his attacks were crisp, with rhythmically tricky high-velocity passages cleanly articulated. Throughout, there was a sense that Tao was having fun.”

- Los Angeles Times (June 2011)

A stunning Beethoven Ninth, flashy Shostakovich from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

“Shostakovich’s mischievous Piano Concerto No. 1 got a performance by turns playful, flashy and hauntingly lovely. Fifteen-year-old pianist Conrad Tao had brilliance in spades, but also generous and sophisticated expression.  Let’s hope he returns soon.”

- Dallas Morning News (May 2011)