Press

Counterpoint: Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher’s Unique Fusion of Music and Dance

OutSmart Magazine

Sam Byrd

When you’ve got music and rhythm, who could ask for anything more? That’s exactly what audiences will find during Counterpoint: Conrad Tao & Caleb Teicher, presented by Performing Arts Houston this month at the Wortham Center downtown.

July 22, 2024

BSO and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra deliver pair of memorable performances

The Berkshire Eagle

Clarence Fanto

“Conrad Tao easily rose to the challenge on Friday… Tao performed the hushed, dedicate opening — containing a clarinet duo in one of Bernstein’s most poignant themes — with gentle reverence.”

July 20, 2024

Aspen Music Festival and School: Expanding the bounds of classical music

The Aspen Times

Harvey Steiman

"If George Gershwin famously dabbled in jazz for his Rhapsody in Blue a century ago, pianist Conrad Tao took it up a few notches in his new piece inspired by him."

May 18, 2024

Conrad Tao shows power, influence of Rachmaninoff in dazzling performance at Severance Music Center

Cleveland.com

Daniel Hathaway

"The performance on May 17 featured the extraordinary Conrad Tao, who expertly curated and stunningly played a program of solo piano music by Sergei Rachmaninoff and composers who Tao said were influenced by the great Russian pianist’s music."

May 16, 2024

Conrad Tao on Rachmaninoff's 'Soft Power'

Ideastream Public Media

Bill O'Connell

WCLV's Bill O'Connell talks with pianist Conrad Tao who appears Friday May 17, 7:30pm, in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center as part of this year's Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival.

May 8, 2024

Pianist Conrad Tao, Santa Rosa Symphony celebrating 100 years of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’

The Press Democrat

Diane Peterson

"This weekend, Tao will perform the original, jazz band version of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” — a timeless, irresistible work that fuses jazz with classical music — during the final subscription set of the Santa Rosa Symphony season."

May 6, 2024

The Junction Trio Brings a Little Unruliness Back to Carnegie Hall

Vulture

Justin Davidson

"The most vibrant music so often takes place at the point where cultures meet, eras overlap, sensibilities intersect, and traditions fork. That in-between space is also the habitat of the aptly named Junction Trio, three stupendous musicians who glory in artistic instability, the sense that styles are not pure or settled practices and never were."

March 15, 2024

Canon Fire

The New Criterion

Jay Nordlinger

"I think Mozart would have approved.”

March 15, 2024

New York Classical Review

Tao’s fresh, illuminating Mozart highlights a standard Philharmonic program

George Grella

"He’s one of many pianists with the chops to play anything and the ideas to make it compelling... His playing in the main solo parts was brilliant, with a spryness to his fingering that made the piano part sparkle... Tao’s approach means that each upcoming performance promises to be different from the others, all superb."

March 9, 2024

Cincinnati Business Courier

Review: CSO welcomes spring with invigorating Copland, Schumann under Matthias Pintscher

Janelle Gelfand

American pianist Conrad Tao, who has wowed with the CSO on two previous occasions, returned with Mozart’s Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491.

November 3, 2023

Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher: Tiny Desk Concert

NPR

Tom Huizenga

"Former prodigies, Tao and Teicher feed off of each other's virtuosity. Presented with genuine delight, the performances left them exhausted and the audience gobsmacked."

November 3, 2023

Eclectic programming of a restless spirit: Conrad Tao reimagines Rachmaninov

Bachtrack

Kurt Gottschalk

“The other thing that came to mind is Rachmaninov’s relationship to popular music”, [Tao] adds. “All of this got me excited about a fairly different take on a Rachmaninov program. I wasn’t particularly interested in just playing the sonatas.”

October 26, 2023

NYC-Arts

WNET Thirteen

A profile of 29 year old Conrad Tao, a composer and pianist who has spent the last decade pushing the boundaries of classical music. He has collaborated as both a soloist and composer with some of the world's most prestigious orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

October 20, 2023

Review: At CSO, Gaffigan conducts Gershwin and Bernstein. Who says classical music can’t be fun?

Chicago Tribune

Hannah Edgar

"From Tao’s very first entrance, it was clear listeners were in the presence of a creative supernova: a syncopated sentence, a heartfelt echo thereof, then an accelerando that balled up his lines into an expressive tangle."

October 20, 2023

The CSO in Bravura Renderings of Works by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein: Review

WTTW

Hedy Weiss

"First, the Gershwin concerto — a seamless melding of classical and jazz style given a bravura rendering by Tao, whose fingers moved across the keyboard at the speed of light and with sublime clarity. His rhythmic sensibility was ideally supported by the fleet, richly expressive Gaffigan and a full orchestra."

October 2, 2023

Fall For Dance Festival Review: 30 Years of Getting to Know Dance

The Ballet Herald

Nadia Vostrikov

"Normally a program with two intermissions makes me yawn but I would have waited through a 45-minute intermission just to see, and hear, Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher’s Rhapsody in Blue."

August 28, 2023

The San Diego Union-Tribune

Review: SummerFest’s ‘Unsilenced Voices’ an understated and accomplished evening of music

Luke Shulze

“Conrad 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.”

August 9, 2023

Seen and Heard International

Robertson and Tao work wonders at Cleveland’s Blossom Festival

Mark S Jordan

"Adams may have written the demanding piano part with Ax in mind, but perhaps somewhere in his creative soul, he was writing it for Conrad Tao, still a child at the time it was composed."

August 6, 2023

Cleveland Orchestra partners with pianist Conrad Tao for a sublime, noteworthy performance of John Adams’ ‘Century Rolls’

Cleveland.com

Dan Hathaway

"Tao -- an animated pianist who doesn’t just play every rhythmic motif from jagged punches to sublime bits of melody, but truly embodies them -- joined the Orchestra in bouncing ever-mutating melodic and rhythmic patterns off each other in the opening movement (untitled)."

August 2, 2023

Pianist Conrad Tao returns to Blossom with Century Rolls

Cleveland Classical

Mike Telin

“I’m also tapping into a kind of mechanical sound world — that insistent, visceral brightness of a player piano. And I think all of that contributes to the story that is being told in the piece.”

August 2, 2023

Conrad Tao to Perform with Cleveland Orchestra Saturday Evening

WCLV

John Simna

"I think that the sonic inspiration of piano rolls is also accompanied by this thematic exploration of technology, and technology's role in the 20th century in history."

July 18, 2023

Tao and Teicher tap in Bay Harbor's Great Lakes Center for the Arts

Interlochen Public Radio

Kate Botello

Studio A turned into a dance studio this week as Classical IPR welcomed music from an unusual duo: pianist Conrad Tao and tap dancer Caleb Teicher.

May 7, 2023

New York Classical Review

14 pianists let Rzewski shine in marathon tribute at Merkin

David Wright

"In any case, Tao’s indomitable performance epitomized—if something over an hour long can be called an epitome—the spirit of the occasion, a Fred Rzewski-like determination to come together over a great body of work, and let it shine."

April 14, 2023

Commentary: The curious case of Rachmaninoff and his connection to Philip Glass

Los Angeles Times

Mark Swed

Recently at the Soraya, the inquisitive young pianist Conrad Tao celebrated the Rachmaninoff anniversary by combining him with Billy Strayhorn, Stephen Sondheim, Irving Berlin and Harold Arlen. Who knew that Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G, Op. 32, No. 5 might make a suitable prelude to “Take the A Train”?

April 4, 2023

Conrad Tao Celebrates Rachmaninoff’s 150th

Cultural Attaché

Craig Byrd

"On Thursday, April 6th, he will present a recital at The Soraya in Northridge where he will show a through-line from Rachmaninoff to Art Tatum, Billy Strayhorn and Stephen Sondheim. How might he do that? That was just what I wanted to know when I spoke last week with Conrad for the first time since our 2019 interview."

February 20, 2023

"City Lights" with Lois Reitzes

90.1 FM WABE

Lois Reitzes

“City Lights” is a daily exploration of the creative fabric of Atlanta—our expressive, diverse, influential city. WABE host Lois Reitzes talks to leading figures and innovative newcomers in pop culture, music, theater, dance, visual arts, film, food and much more.

February 3, 2023

Review: S.F. Symphony, Gabriel Kahane address the housing crisis and inequality in the U.S.

San Francisco Chronicle

Lisa Hirsch

“Soloist Conrad Tao’s poise, fierce technique and footloose grace were ideal for the brash extroversion of the outer movements. In the slow movement, his heartfelt sincerity never veered into sentimentality.”

January 11, 2023

KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area

On the Arts

Angie Coiro

On the Arts, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, guest host Angie Coiro speaks with SF Symphony guest artist Conrad Tao (starts at 23:30)

December 29, 2022

Osmo Vänskä's goodbye, Thomas Søndergård's hello and 'Carmen' among classical highlights in 2022

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Rob Hubbard

Conrad Tao and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sept. 30-Oct. 2: The pianist excelled as both soloist and curator on a marvelously inventive program of Mozart, C.P.E. Bach, the Renaissance and trailblazing American modernists.

December 22, 2022

At Jordan Hall, a rising generation of musicians on display

The Boston Globe

Jeremy Eichler

At the piano, Conrad Tao was a formidable, often dominant force, his playing rhythmically free and at times virtually symphonic in sonority.

December 12, 2022

The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Celebrating New Celebrities

Lee Eiseman & Geoffrey Wieting

However, with the arrival of the chordal climax in the piano, topped by scintillating string trills, joy triumphs, and the threesome’s unforced power and virtuosity again inspired awe as Ravel’s great work came to a ringing conclusion.

December 11, 2022

Review: Celebrity Series Presents Junction Trio — Balancing Flair and Cohesion

The Arts Fuse

Aaron Keebaugh

Chamber music may be the art of compromise. But violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Conrad Tao never lose themselves completely to what their repertoire—and ensemble—demand.

December 2, 2022

Adventurous Soloists Join as a Piano Trio

The Rehearsal Room

Stephen Smoliar

Encountering a “new generation” trio approach this music last night was... a real treat from beginning to end.

November 21, 2022

From Piano Trios to Protest Music, Conrad Tao Does It All

SF Classical Voice

Emily Wilson

The pianist and composer talked with SF Classical Voice about bringing social justice into his music, why he wants to work with a tap dancer, and how he didn’t know so much of his life as a musician would be on email.

October 28, 2022

How Chamber Music Supergroups Come Together… and Sometimes Come Apart

String Magazine

Brian Wise

The phenomenon of the supergroup—comprised of prominent artists and sometimes fueled by clashing egos—has surfaced in every major genre, from rock and opera to chamber music. It wasn’t on the agenda of violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Conrad Tao when they gathered at Tao’s Manhattan apartment in late 2015...

September 30, 2022

Review: Pianist Conrad Tao performs with imagination, energy and sensitivity in his SPCO debut

The Star Tribune

Rob Hubbard

…how wonderful it was to once again hear some marvelous Mozart played by the SPCO and an imaginative, energetic and sensitive pianist.

August 31, 2022

42 New Classical Music Performances to Hear This Fall

Vulture

Justin Davidson

Elite and elitist don’t have to be the same. The trio formed by pianist and composer Conrad Tao, violinist Stefan Jackiw, and cellist Jay Campbell is a grouping of hyper-rarefied talents, but by performing with the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, they join a long tradition of democratizing classical music.

July 22, 2022

Review: A hot night of music from the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in New York

Financial Times

George Grella

From his very first phrase in the piano concerto, he added quick and judicious embellishments to every line, minuscule grace notes that expanded the colour and charm in the music, and so idiomatic that one felt this was how it might have gone when the piece was new.

July 15, 2022

WQXR, Artist Propulsion Lab

Interview: Haptic Technology and Music: Andrew Yee and Conrad Tao in Conversation

Straight from the Artist Propulsion Lab comes a conversation with cellist, Andrew Yee and composer/pianist, Conrad Tao as they delve deep into the heartbeat of music and accessibility in the concert hall — wearable technology to feel sound.

June 24, 2022

Interveiw

Interview: Composer and pianist Conrad Tao’s poetic approaches to history and social justice

WHQR

Anastasia Marie, BPR

I hope that my programs can be an ear opening experience as a result of these unexpected juxtapositions. And I hope that they imply connections between different music and different instruments and different traditions, in a way that both highlights the beautiful diversity of the work and also hints at something shared beyond just vocabulary.

May 27, 2022

Review: ‘A conversation of ideas’

Pasatiempo

Michael Wade Simpson I

What happens to child prodigies by the time they reach their late 20s? Caleb Teicher, a tap dancer, and Conrad Tao, a pianist, composer, and former violinist, are collaborating on ideas that may change the fields in which they have found so much early success.

May 2, 2022

Review: Young pianist’s original piece dazzles as N.J. Symphony returns to NJPAC

NJ.com

James C. Taylor

A message to Conrad Tao, the 27-year-old former child prodigy and graceful American soloist: never play another classic piece by a dead composer again!

March 24, 2022

Review: Lansing Symphony tightens up for all-classical concert

CityPulse

Lawrence Cosentino

Pianist and composer Conrad Tao is unique in the distinguished annals of Lansing Symphony soloists. At 27, he’s played all over the world.

March 17, 2022

Interview: Pianist Conrad Tao plumbs minor-key Mozart with LSO

City Pulse

Lawrence Cosentino

Tao’s compositions go straight up your spine into the most undefended parts of your psyche. Check out his luminous, soul-wrenching electro-acoustic concerto for piano and iPad, “An Adjustment,” commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and written in the wake of a bout with depression.

March 9, 2022

Interview: Music at the Phillips Collection: innovation as tradition

DC Theater Arts

Olivia Hampton

As part of centennial celebrations that began last year, America’s first museum of modern art has commissioned ten new compositions, most touching upon a specific artist or artwork contained in the institution’s collection. The effort is part of a legacy of presenting innovative musical voices.

February 6, 2022

The San Diego Union-Tribune

Review: La Jolla Music Society’s tap-meets-classical music concert a hit with the audience

Christian Hertzog

Pianist Conrad Tao and dancer Caleb Teicher charm audience in La Jolla Music Society presentation of “Counterpoint,” the first installment in its ProtoStar Innovative Series

February 1, 2022

The San Diego Union Tribune

Interview: One’s a tap prodigy. The other’s a piano virtuoso. Together, they create magic onstage

Marcia Luttrell

When Caleb Teicher tap dances to pianist Conrad Tao’s rendition of “Rhapsody in Blue,” it looks spontaneous, as if they are magically linked by the same innovative mindset.

January 21, 2022

Interview: Conrad Tao is an undeniable maestro of the millennial age

WJCT

Daniel A. Brown

As a performer in solo or symphonic performance, he is as savvy at exploring the enigmatic jazz of polymath Thelonious Monk as he is navigating iconic works by Prokofiev or Rachmaninoff. His award-winning compositions reveal a musical mind that is fully tuned to contemporary music, while having an erudite knowledge of classical music history.

December 21, 2021

Review: Conrad Tao at the 92nd Street Y, Melody in Sound Clouds

Berkshire Fine Arts

Susan Hall

Conrad Tao is a special pianist. He is a master of technique and so much more. He performs as a listener, always hearing the harmonics of a note he strikes (or even plucks). In his own compositions and in his interpretation of the work of others, he calls our attention to the richness of a tone, colored by many notes, in geometric order above the

December 18, 2021

Review: Conrad Tao’s Notes of Revelations

Concerto Net

Theresa L. Kaufmann

Long before his 30th birthday, an appearance of Conrad Tao is neither a recital or a concert or a program. It becomes an Event. The 92nd St Y Auditorium was not filled, but the enthusiasm of the audience was palpable, the combination of memory and anticipation creating a tangible event, a pre-piano phenomena.

December 3, 2021

Review: Pianist Conrad Tao in Recital

The Arts Fuse

Jonathan Blumhofer

"... there’s an unspoken rule that accompanies Beethoven’s late work... only performers long in years might adequately plumb its depths. Among other things, the 27-year-old pianist Conrad Tao blew up that canard at the end of his local recital debut (presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston) on Wednesday night at Longy’s Pickman Hall."

December 2, 2021

Review: Conrad Tao makes magnetic Celebrity Series solo debut

Boston Globe

A.Z. Madonna

“Keyed In,'” the penultimate piece, exploded out of the piano with an avalanche of low notes in the right hand and a steady pulse in the left... it seemed to sing from the walls until it materialized under Tao’s hand, as the piece’s final sound.

December 2, 2021

The Boston Music Intelligencer

Review: The Feng Shui of Tao

Gareth Cordery

"[Tao] demonstrated his deep knowledge of the harmonic and melodic potential of Bach’s masterful counterpoint. Hearing this new addition to a long history of keyboard improvisation on chorale themes was delighting."

December 2, 2021

Review: Tao finds the Tao of piano works in wide-ranging Boston debut

Boston Classical Review

Aaron Keebaugh

"... Tao is foremost a musician’s pianist, who displays maturity and sensitivity beyond his youthful age."

November 6, 2021

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Review: Phenomenal pianist, impressive conductor make Arkansas Symphony debuts

Eric E. Harrison

"Hot-shot young pianist Conrad Tao proved why he’s the toast of the classical music world"

November 4, 2021

Review: Combining piano and tap dance, Tao, Teicher stun and reinvent at Richardson Hall

The Daily Princetonian

Aster Zhang

"This is the kind of music that overturns what you thought you knew about everything you’ve heard before."

September 20, 2021

Review: Tao’s world premiere, Singleton and Strauss find ASO in strong form

ArtsATL

Jordan Owen

"Entertaining and captivating"

September 20, 2021

Review: Jackiw premieres Tao violin concerto with ASO, Spano

EarRelevant

Mark Gresham

"The kind of music they usually don’t let us play anymore...More easily felt than deciphered"

September 20, 2021

The Atlantic Journal-Constitution

Atlanta Symphony Orcheatra unveils world premiere to a sparse crowd

Jon Ross

"Tao’s violin concerto is important commentary on the here and now by an established piano virtuoso and an important young compositional voice that joins a burgeoning genre of pandemic art. It begs to be deciphered."

September 17, 2021

Interview with Conrad Tao and Stefan Jackiw

City Lights

Lois Reitzes

The world premiere of a violin concerto by Conrad Tao will be performed by violinist Stefan Jackiw with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra this weekend. Lois Reitzes speaks with both artists.

September 17, 2021

Conrad Tao’s Newest Composition Inspires Focus In The Chaos Of The Pandemic

WABE Atlanta

Adron McCann

Two of today’s foremost contemporary classical musicians take the stage this weekend at Symphony Hall, with the world premiere performance of the new violin concerto composed by Conrad Tao.

September 13, 2021

Composer Conrad Tao Discusses the ASO World Premiere of His Violin Concerto

Arts ATL

Pierre Ruhe

"In pop and almost all other music, composer-performers are of course the norm. But in our age of hyper-specialization in concert hall music, the hybrid has become rare... Just 27, pianist-composer Conrad Tao is among the brightest lights in the old tradition."

July 27, 2021

Cleveland Orchestra: “Mozart in the Meadows” (July 11)

Cleveland Classical

Peter Feher

"The pianist’s cerebral approach worked wonders for his encore, Brahms’s Intermezzo in E Major, Op. 116, No. 4. If Tao fit the Mozart mold for a time, there was an element of growing out of it to this performance."

July 12, 2021

Jane Glover and Conrad Tao Headline a Superb All-Mozart Concert in Cleveland

Bachtrack

Timothy Robson

"Conrad Tao is one of a group of younger versatile pianists who are equally adept at performing Ligeti, Carter or Julia Wolfe, as well as Mozart and Beethoven."

July 10, 2021

Chamber Music’s Return to the Tent

Aspen Times

Harvey Steiman

"At 27 years of age, Tao plays with assurance and a keen understanding of how every musical gesture can affect an audience. If he continues to plat like this, he can keep coming back for a long time."

July 10, 2021

Seen and Heard International

Chamber Music Covers a Wide Range in Aspen’s Big Tent

Harvey Steiman

"Tao launched into Rzewski’s piano transcription of the song, plunging into the hour-long series of variations with appropriate panache...Tao’s cadenza, left optional by the composer, had its own style, not quite copying Rzewski’s but providing an enchanting twenty-first-century bridge to the literal restatement of the song."

June 17, 2021

MAW, Please: ‘Restorative Power of Live Music’ Returns to Montecito

Montecito Journal

Steven Libowitz

Another live offering comes from Mosher Guest Artist pianist-composer Conrad Tao, who will be in residence at MAW, where he will perform live in a recital and also teach a masterclass.

June 1, 2021

New Sounds #4503, Brass Songs and Instrumentals

New Sounds

John Schaefer

Listen to collaborative music by pianist/composer Conrad Tao and the “accidental brass quartet”, The Westerlies, from a 2021 album, Bricolage. Recorded in a rural cabin in 2019, these brass works with piano are the results of improvisations and experiments with minimal editing and poke at the boundaries between jazz, roots and chamber music.

May 14, 2021

Electrifying chamber music from the Junction Trio in Cleveland

Bachtrack

Sam Jacobson

The music was generally restrained until a sudden outburst in the final moments, showing in no uncertain terms the trio’s thorough command of this daunting music.

May 11, 2021

San Francisco Classical Voice

Laguna Beach Music Festival Shows Ambition Under Conrad Tao

Peter Feher

The Laguna Beach Music Festival signature, a different artistic director each year, passes to pianist Conrad Tao in 2021. And Tao is bringing a musical vision both ambitious and adapted to the moment, which makes these performances worth going to.

May 5, 2021

Cleveland Chamber Music Society: Junction Trio in person & online

Cleveland Classical

Jarrett Hoffman

...It’s refreshing when today’s virtuosos not only match or exceed the abilities of their predecessors, but also reveal without any hint of pretense that they’re human. That was my experience last week when I met over Zoom with the New York City-based Junction Trio...

April 30, 2021

JACK Quartet Concludes Online PIVOT 2021

The Rehearsal Studio

Stephen Smoliar

Boldly imaginative...a brashly energetic account, an excellent source to acclimate the attentive listener to Carter’s imaginative use of variations in rhythm...

April 29, 2021

SF Performances Pivot: Jack Quartet and Conrad Tao

San Francisco Chronicle

Joshua Kosman

If there’s a musical prospect more exciting than a recital by the Jack Quartet, it’s the promise of hearing that adventurous ensemble in partnership with the brilliant pianist and composer Conrad Tao.

April 26, 2021

25 Notable New Releases Over the Next Two Weeks

Vulture

Vulture Picks

The pianist-composer is unfurling one of the concert world’s most excitingly unpredictable careers, so of course he’s used the constraints of the past year to connect with audiences in ways he never could have just by sticking to the stage.

April 19, 2021

The Boston Musical Intelligencer

The Way of Conrad Tao

David Moran

Tao imagined and gauged much to perfection...

March 30, 2021

WQXR's Artist Propulsion Lab features Junction Trio on WNYC's Morning Edition

WNYC

Michael Hill

The Junction Trio joined WNYC's Michael Hill on Morning Edition to talk about how the three of them originally got connected, and how they now stay connected to their audiences through this long pandemic period.

March 23, 2021

Celebrating The Return Of Live Performance In New York At The Guggenheim

Forbes

Darryn King

By the end, with the swelling upsurge of Gershwin’s climax, the intensity of Tao’s playing, and the kaleidoscope of bodily movement, it would have been difficult to think of a better gift for that crowd, and a stronger evocation of the city’s unkillable spirit.

March 14, 2021

Cincinnati Business Courier

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra welcomes spring with resounding Mozart festival

Janelle Gelfand

For the centerpiece, Tao made a return visit with an exceptional performance of Mozart’s Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453...The first movement’s orchestral introduction was bright and buoyant, and Tao made his entrance with a lighter-than-air touch. His playing was clear and expressive.

November 12, 2020

Why Do Pianists Know So Little About Pianos?

The New York Times

Anthony Tommasini

Professional pianists across the city faced the same predicament. “My piano was in horrible condition,” Conrad Tao recalled recently. “I finally went out in March and bought a tuning hammer,” he added, referring to the standard tuning tool that is actually a wrench-like lever.

August 23, 2020

For a Music Critic, a Vacation That’s All Too Quiet

The New York Times

Anthony Tommasini

My feelings about the difference between live and online music were captured in a blunt tweet this month from the young, adventurous pianist and composer Conrad Tao. “I’m referring,” he wrote, “to two upcoming prerecorded video performances as ‘shows,’ slightly facetiously, but also they definitely aren’t ‘concerts’ as I see it..."

August 18, 2020

Great Performers in Recital at Tanglewood: Conrad Tao

The Berkshire Edge

David Noel Edwards

"Conrad Tao likes music with a lot of open space in it — room to breathe, room to reflect, room to feel — and he plays even the most abstract pieces with real heart. So you never have to wonder if he means it, and you probably can’t say that about every pianist you’ve heard perform at Tanglewood."

August 13, 2020

Pianist Conrad Tao wants you to question everything

Boston Globe

Zoë Madonna

Like many formerly globetrotting musicians, Conrad Tao is grounded until further notice. Unsurprisingly, the Manhattan-based pianist has filled his schedule with playing remote performances.

July 29, 2020

Interview With Pianist Conrad Tao: American Rage

Aspen Public Radio

Chris Mohr

Last fall, pianist Conrad Tao released his highly political CD, American Rage. Its themes of social justice and compassion resonate more strongly than ever today.

June 25, 2020

Strange Intimacy in the Uncanny Valley: Bang on a Can Marathon June 2020

I Care If You Listen

Tristan McKay

"In Conrad Tao’s performance of Frederic Rzewski’s politically infused piano piece 'Which Side are You On?', he began by playing a recording of the original union song written by Florence Reece and ended with a hair-raising and devilish improvisation."

June 22, 2020

New York Classical Review

New music for new times

George Grella

The playing is excellent throughout, technically superior and also vibrant and responsive, the musicians in the moment with each other and the audiences. Though from different eras, the well-made program builds momentum with the linear accumulation of excitement as if the listener were there.

May 17, 2020

What does the coronavirus sound like? Classical music composers answer with strings ... and screams

Philadelphia Inquirer

David Patrick Stearns

Composer/pianist Conrad Tao, one of 30-plus Guggenheim-commissioned artists, created the music video What I’ve Been Doing, riffing on “the drip of my leaky ceiling; the tone of running water hitting a drain, so faint I always wonder if I’m imagining it; the rustling of a low-density polyethylene plastic bag.”

May 7, 2020

On a Positive Note: Pianist Hosts Audiences Virtually for 'YoungArts at Conrad's'

WWFM

Rachel Katz

National YoungArts Foundation had scheduled Pianist Conrad Tao to present the final concert in its new YoungArts at Ted’s series in Miami this month. But with quarantines still underway, the audience has been invited - virtually - to YoungArts at Conrad’s, from the pianist’s home in New York Thursday, May 7 at 7 pm.

April 6, 2020

Iris: An Orchestra in Full Bloom

Memphis Magazine

Alex Greene

Conrad Tao, only recently hitting his quarter-century mark, combines the two, being both a virtuoso pianist (and violinist) and one of the convention-defying composers featured by Iris.

March 31, 2020

Peter Feher, San Francisco Classical Voice

In the Season of the Virus, the Online Concert Comes of Age

Conrad Tao reprised Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated for 92nd Street Y's series of livestreamed performances as more cancellations pour in due to COVID-19.

March 31, 2020

The Coronavirus Hasn't Slowed Classical Music

Joshua Barone, NY Times

As more shows and concerts are cancelled, Conrad joins many other musicians in providing comfort and encouragement through livestreamed performances.

March 6, 2020

A Change is Gonna Come, with L.A. Phil's Power to the People! Festival

Falling James, LA Weekly

Tao made a dramatic appearance at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles in February last year, when he pried open the curiously poignant, halting, back-and-forth piano melody that winds down behind baritone Rod Gilfry’s imposing one-man performance as a bitterly sarcastic ex-pianist, in David Lang’s opera The Loser.

March 5, 2020

Dacia Clay, Classical KING FM 98.1

American Rage: Rethinking Copland with Pianist Conrad Tao

Conrad Tao is the pianist, composer and new music champion who appears in two concerts presented by the Seattle Symphony this week. He spoke with our Classical KING FM Creative Director, Dacia Clay. Conrad talks about his recital in Octave 9 on March 6 and his appearance at the SSO Celebrate Asia concert this weekend.

February 17, 2020