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Conrad TaoPianist, Violinist, Composer
Conrad Tao opens the 2008-09 season of Matinee Musicale concerts with an exciting Cincinnati debut performance. Pianist, violinist and composer Conrad Tao is a stunning 13-year-old musician with an amazing history and an exciting future. The concert will be on Sunday, October 26 at 2:00pm, at the Scottish Rite Center Auditorium, 317 East 5th Street in Cincinnati. It will be followed by a reception for Conrad and his audience. A skilled pianist, this young musician has already made a name for himself playing with such orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, the Russian National Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony. Just a few of his other past performances include solos with the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, and solo recitals at Rockefeller University in New York, Chicago’s Music in the Loft Series, as well as a debut in Italy last summer. Upcoming international appearances include recitals in Switzerland, Mexico, and a tour of China with the Juilliard Orchestra. He is also the winner of the Juilliard Pre-College’s Gina Bachauer Piano Competition and the Prokofiev Concerto Competition in 2006.
Born in Urbana, Illinois, Conrad had already started, at 18 months, to play children’s songs on the piano. He began violin lessons at 3, formal piano lessons at 3 ½, and gave his first public performance at age 4. By age 8 he had performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major (K414) with the Utah Chamber Music Festival Orchestra. At age10, he was featured on the NPR program “From the Top” as pianist and composer, and was featured again on PBS’s “From the Top – Live from Carnegie Hall” TV series in 2007, as violinist, pianist and composer. Born in Urbana, Illinois, Conrad had already started, at 18 months, to play children’s songs on the piano. He began violin lessons at 3, formal piano lessons at 3 ½, and gave his first public performance at age 4. By age 8 he had performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major (K414) with the Utah Chamber Music Festival Orchestra. At age10, he was featured on the NPR program “From the Top” as pianist and composer, and was featured again on PBS’s “From the Top – Live from Carnegie Hall” TV series in 2007, as violinist, pianist and composer. Born in Urbana, Illinois, Conrad Tao had already started, at 18 months, to play children’s songs on the piano. He began violin lessons at 3, formal piano lessons at 3 ½, and gave his first public performance at age 4. By age 8 he had performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major (K414) with the Utah Chamber Music Festival Orchestra. At age10, he was featured on the NPR program “From the Top” as pianist and composer, and was featured again on PBS’s “From the Top – Live from Carnegie Hall” TV series in 2007, as violinist, pianist and composer.
But Conrad Tao hasn’t stopped there. He also has won national prizes in composition since the age of 7, and has had his work featured on Chicago WFMT radio’s 50th anniversary program. At 10, with his composition “Silhouettes and Shadows” he was the youngest winner of the BMI Carlos Surinach Prize. Since 2004, he is a five-time consecutive winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and in February, 2007, two new compositions, “Duet for Erhu and Violin”, a work commissioned by the Art Institute of Chicago, and “Two Worlds” for string quartet had their world premier at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Midwest Meets East concert. His first piano concerto, “The Four Elements for Piano and Orchestra”, was commissioned by the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio, and premiered in 2007.
Return from Conrad Tao's page to 2008-09 Season Chart |
