Event Archives

Conrad Tao, Piano

Conrad Tao began his musical career as a wunderkind. As a pre-teenager he appeared as both a violin and piano soloist with dozens of top-tier orchestras, and later received eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Now twenty-one, he has transitioned gracefully into a mature artist with interpretive depth well beyond his years. The Baltimore Sun declares, “Tao possesses startling technical élan and an ability to communicate clearly, no matter how thorny a score may become.”

At Duke Performances, Tao plays a varied program of old favorites and new discoveries. The first half is anchored by American works: excerpts from North American Ballads by the iconoclastic contemporary composer Frederic Rzewski sit on either side of Copland’s Piano Sonata. In the second half, Tao takes on Cage a new commission from Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang, followed by Schumann’s Carnaval, each movement of which represents a different festal reveler.

Frederic Rzewski: North American Ballads: Which Side Are You On?
Copland: Piano Sonata
Rzweski: North American Ballads: Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues
David Lang: Cage
Schumann: Carnaval, op. 9

When
  • Fri, Mar 25, 2016 at 8:00pm