Press

June 24, 2026
Review

Review: Extravagant and highly gifted: The new generation now takes the stage at the Piano Festival.

Westfalenpost
|
Von Pedro Obiera

“In America, he is celebrated almost hymn-like as a leading figure of a "new generation" of classical performers…Conrad Tao unfolded the vibrant soundscape of early 20th-century America like a shimmering prism…the musician unleashed a dynamic firework display of almost room-shattering explosive power."

READ MORE
June 5, 2026
Review

REVIEW: Conrad Tao Connects Broken Lines

CadenzaNYC
|
Brian Taylor

"Tao’s virtuosity is limitless and his intellect formidable. But his imagination and emotional acuity are what transform his highly conceptual piano recitals, such as this evening’s Broken Lines, into persuasive artistic statements."

READ MORE
May 26, 2026
Feature

Preview: Inside Conrad Tao’s Expanding Musical World

Third Coast Review
|
Zach Carstensen

Today, Tao represents a different variety of artist. He has rejected the old, rigid division of labor that required an individual to develop a singular talent in music, by being only a touring virtuoso, or a composer, or a concert curator. Instead, Tao is three at once. This triptych of performance, composition, and curation has defined his career.

READ MORE
May 15, 2026
Review

Review: Atlanta Symphony pairs Berlioz and Bernstein in program of wandering minds and uneasy worlds

EarRelevant
|
Mark Gresham

"His performance combined precision, rhythmic flexibility, and analytical clarity, qualities well suited to Bernstein’s shifting language of jazz idioms, modernist harmonies, and lyrical introspection. Tao navigated the score’s rapid mood shifts with fluid command. In the more extroverted passages, his articulation remained crisp and controlled."

READ MORE
May 7, 2026
Feature

The Concert Pianist Wearing Comme des Garçons at Carnegie Hall

New York Magazine's Secret Strategist
|
Winnie Yang

When pianist and composer Conrad Tao performs with the New York Philharmonic or at Carnegie Hall, he’s skipping the tuxedo for a Comme des Garçons shirt with CdG drop-crotch dress shorts or a modified Vivienne Westwood suit.

READ MORE
May 1, 2026
Review

Review: Canellakis, CSO bring fresh brilliance to populist program

Chicago Classical Review
|
Lawrence A. Johnson

"Tao proved a superb exponent of [Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3], his quicksilver style and leonine power in the framing movements wholly in synch with the composer’s late keyboard idiom...Tao was fully up to the demands of the finale, bringing a hard-edged, bristling virtuosity to the score and working up to a thrilling conclusion"

READ MORE
March 17, 2026
Review

Review: Conrad Tao brings poetic touch to Brahms, Ravel, and contemporary works

Boston Classical Review
|
Lani Lee

"Imaginative recital programming seems to come naturally to pianist-composer Conrad Tao...There is a sense of personal curation in this program with pieces arranged by aesthetic instinct rather than chronology. It was a reminder that even the most familiar repertoire can feel newly immediate in the right hands."

READ MORE
December 16, 2025
Review

Review: Adam Roberts – ‘Book of Flowers’ with Conrad Tao, Piano

Blog Critics
|
Jon Sobel

"Tao’s crisp playing stands out here, as it does throughout the album, finding as much nuance in jumpiness as he does in sentiment."

READ MORE
November 9, 2025
Feature

Beethoven and Debussy’s musical ideas

KHFM Classical Public Radio
|
Brent Stevens

PIanist and composer Conrad Tao talks to Brent Stevens.

READ MORE
October 14, 2025
Feature

Rachmaninoff rocks… pop? You bet your sweet ‘A’ Train

48 Hills
|
Marke Bieschke

Firebrand pianist Conrad Tao traces the Russian composer's influence on classics from Strayhorn and Sinatra to Dylan and Celine Dion.

READ MORE
September 13, 2025
Review

Review: Conrad Tao Opens Season Two of Nova Linea Musica With Echoes and Algorithms

Third Coast Review
|
Kathy D. Hey

"This is new music in the classical genre at its best... it elevates and builds the art form."

READ MORE
September 12, 2025
Review

Guarneri Hall becomes a lab for Tao’s digital experiments in Nova Linea Musica’s season opener

Seen and Heard International
|
Zach Carstensen

"Classical music, facing its own questions of survival and relevance, will need figures like Tao: artists unafraid to use technology as foil and tool, to complicate our listening even when the results are unsettled."

READ MORE
September 8, 2025
Feature

Acclaimed pianist Conrad Tao discusses creating classical music, his Illinois roots

Illinois Public Media
|
Brian Mackey

Tao is set to return to Illinois this week- to open the new season of the Nova Linea Musica series. It’s a solo concert of contemporary classical music scheduled for Wednesday evening at Guarneri Hall in downtown Chicago.

READ MORE
July 9, 2025
Feature

Mohr interviews Conrad Tao during the 2025 Aspen Music Festival

Aspen Public Radio
|
Chris Mohr

In this interview, Conrad talks about why he chose to focus on Rachmaninoff and his profound influence on American music.

READ MORE
June 12, 2025
Review

Review: A brilliant and exciting program from the NJ Symphony at Princeton

Philly Gay Calendar
|
Ralph Malachowski

"Conrad Tao was electric in his playing, and completely arresting in his musicality. His muscular musicality kept the audience at the edges of their seats. At the conclusion of his spectacular playing, the audience leapt to their collective feet... Phenomenal."

READ MORE
June 11, 2025
Review

Review: Conrad Tao performs with New Jersey Symphony at adventurous season finale

NJarts.net
|
Courtney Smith

"Tao’s youthful exuberance gave the work brightness and immediacy. He sprang from the piano bench at times — for instance, during the great leaps of alternating octaves and chords at the beginning of the Scherzando. He sailed through the work’s technical demands... with finesse"

READ MORE
June 10, 2025
Review

Review: N.J. Symphony ends 102nd season on a classic yet creative high note

NJ.com
|
James C. Taylor

"Tao was in complete command at his Steinway, sometimes stretching the music to extremes...his interpretation felt fluid and musical...it sounded like a completely different piece — reimagining a classic, honoring its greatness but pushing it in a new direction."

READ MORE
May 31, 2025
Review

Review: Conrad Tao delivers a thrilling Beethoven piano concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra

Minnesota Star Tribune
|
Rob Hubbard

"Tao was terrific, delivering an electrifying performance that well deserved the instant standing ovation it was accorded."

READ MORE
March 6, 2025
Review

REVIEW: Pianist Conrad Tao explores colors of Debussy – and the Lumatone

Cincinnati Business Courier
|
Janelle Gelfand

"He is clearly one of the great minds to watch in the world of new music."

READ MORE
February 20, 2025
Review

Review: The Cusp Magazine

The Cusp Magazine
|
John Short

"Caleb Teicher and Conrad Tao have developed something both new and profound."

READ MORE
January 31, 2025
Review

REVIEW: Conrad Tao Keys Into Debussy Etudes at Zankel Hall

Cadenza NYC
|
Brian Taylor

“Tao is a pianist who functions thrillingly within traditional classical music trappings, but it was no mere gimmick that his solo return to Carnegie Hall brought a downtown sense of avant-garde to midtown. It’s in his soul.”

READ MORE
November 11, 2024
Review

Review: S.F. Symphony embraces musical mystery with guest conductor Nicholas Collon

San Francisco Chronicle, DateBook
|
Simon Cohen

“The pianist’s intensity of feeling was often expressed both physically and musically, yet at other moments he played with an almost casual effortlessness, like in the simple, songlike melody that opens the second movement. He was always in control, bringing off fiery stabs of octaves and cascading arpeggios with impressive precision.”

READ MORE
October 19, 2024
REVIEW

SLSO soloist brings Art Tatum and Jerry Lee Lewis into the Touhill

The St. Louis American
|
Chris King

He had the right foot of a punk rock drummer pounding a bass drum the way he hammered that foot pedal. His range of volume was gigantic... I have never heard anyone thunder a piano melody without dumbing it down one iota like this guy.

READ MORE
September 5, 2024
Feature

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.

READ MORE
July 22, 2024
Review

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.”

READ MORE
July 20, 2024
Review

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."

READ MORE
May 18, 2024
Review

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."

READ MORE
May 16, 2024
Feature

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.

READ MORE
May 8, 2024
Feature

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."

READ MORE
May 6, 2024
Review

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."

READ MORE
March 15, 2024
Review

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

New York Classical Review
|
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."

READ MORE
March 15, 2024
Review

Canon Fire

The New Criterion
|
Jay Nordlinger

"I think Mozart would have approved.”

READ MORE
March 9, 2024
Review

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

Cincinnati Business Courier
|
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.

READ MORE
November 3, 2023
Feature

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.”

READ MORE
November 3, 2023
Feature

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."

READ MORE
October 26, 2023
Feature

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.

READ MORE
October 20, 2023
Review

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."

READ MORE
October 20, 2023
Review

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."

READ MORE
October 2, 2023
Review

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."

READ MORE
August 28, 2023
Review

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

The San Diego Union-Tribune
|
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.”

READ MORE
August 9, 2023
Review

Robertson and Tao work wonders at Cleveland’s Blossom Festival

Seen and Heard International
|
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."

READ MORE
August 6, 2023
Review

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)."

READ MORE
August 2, 2023
Interview

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."

READ MORE
August 2, 2023
Interview

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.”

READ MORE
July 18, 2023
Feature

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.

READ MORE
May 7, 2023
Review

14 pianists let Rzewski shine in marathon tribute at Merkin

New York Classical Review
|
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."

READ MORE
April 14, 2023
Feature

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”?

READ MORE
April 4, 2023
Interview

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."

READ MORE
February 20, 2023
Interview

"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.

READ MORE
February 3, 2023
Review

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.”

READ MORE
January 11, 2023
Interview

On the Arts

KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
|
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)

READ MORE
December 29, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
December 22, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
December 12, 2022
Review

Celebrating New Celebrities

The Boston Musical Intelligencer
|
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.

READ MORE
December 11, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
December 2, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
November 21, 2022
Interview

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.

READ MORE
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...

READ MORE
September 30, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
August 31, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
July 22, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
July 15, 2022
Interview

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

WQXR, Artist Propulsion Lab
|

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.

READ MORE
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.

READ MORE
May 27, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
May 2, 2022
Review

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!

READ MORE
March 24, 2022
Review

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.

READ MORE
March 17, 2022
Interview

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.

READ MORE
March 9, 2022
Interview

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.

READ MORE
February 6, 2022
Review

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

The San Diego Union-Tribune
|
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

READ MORE
February 1, 2022
Interview

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

The San Diego Union Tribune
|
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.

READ MORE
January 21, 2022
Interview

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.

READ MORE
December 21, 2021
Review

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

READ MORE
December 18, 2021
Review

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.

READ MORE
December 3, 2021
Review

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."

READ MORE
December 2, 2021
Review

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."

READ MORE
December 2, 2021
Review

Review: The Feng Shui of Tao

The Boston Music Intelligencer
|
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."

READ MORE
December 2, 2021
Review

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.

READ MORE
November 6, 2021
Review

Review: Phenomenal pianist, impressive conductor make Arkansas Symphony debuts

Arkansas Democrat Gazette
|
Eric E. Harrison

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

READ MORE
November 4, 2021
Review

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."

READ MORE
September 20, 2021
Review

Atlanta Symphony Orcheatra unveils world premiere to a sparse crowd

The Atlantic Journal-Constitution
|
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."

READ MORE
September 20, 2021
Review

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"

READ MORE
September 20, 2021
Review

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

ArtsATL
|
Jordan Owen

"Entertaining and captivating"

READ MORE
September 17, 2021
FEATURE

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.

READ MORE
September 17, 2021
FEATURE

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.

READ MORE
September 13, 2021
FEATURE

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."

READ MORE
July 27, 2021
Review

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."

READ MORE
July 12, 2021
Review

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."

READ MORE
July 10, 2021
Review

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

Seen and Heard International
|
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."

READ MORE
July 10, 2021
Review

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."

READ MORE
June 17, 2021
Feature

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.

READ MORE
June 1, 2021
Feature

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.

READ MORE
May 14, 2021
Review

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.

READ MORE
May 11, 2021
Review

Laguna Beach Music Festival Shows Ambition Under Conrad Tao

San Francisco Classical Voice
|
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.

READ MORE
May 5, 2021
Feature

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...

READ MORE
April 30, 2021
Review

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...

READ MORE
April 29, 2021
Review

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.

READ MORE
April 26, 2021
Feature

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.

READ MORE
April 19, 2021
Review

The Way of Conrad Tao

The Boston Musical Intelligencer
|
David Moran

Tao imagined and gauged much to perfection...

READ MORE
March 30, 2021
Feature

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.

READ MORE
March 23, 2021
Review

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.

READ MORE