The only classical musician on Forbes’ 2011 “30 Under 30” list of people changing the world, 19-year-old pianist Conrad Tao, will take the Seretean Center stage at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17. The public is also invited to gain a deeper insight into Tao’s performance by attending “The Inside Story” presented by OSU piano professor Thomas Lanners at 7 p.m. in room 123 of the Seretean Center.
While on campus, Tao will have the opportunity to address students in the music program about his life as a composer/performer. He will also answer questions from students and faculty.
Recently honored as one of the most promising American pianists of the new generation, Tao was found playing children’s songs on the piano at 18 months of age. Born in Urbana, Ill., he gave his first piano recital at age four, and four years later, he made his concerto debut by performing Mozart’s “Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 414.”
Tao was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in June 2011 by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the Department of Education. He was also the recipient of a Young Arts gold medal in music from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and earned a Gilmore Young Artist award for his talent and promise as a pianist.
Tao has established an international reputation on the piano, appearing as a soloist in the United States with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, and the Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit and San Francisco Symphonies, among others. He has made several tours of Europe, with solo recitals in Paris, London, Munich, Berlin and Verbier, while also performing with orchestras in Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Moscow and Singapore.
Highlights of Tao’s 2012-2013 season include two tours of Europe, including a concerto debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and a third reengagement at the Louvre in Paris, appearances at the Mostly Mozart and Aspen Music Festivals, debuts with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, a return to Asia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and performances of all five Beethoven piano concerti in the United States.
Conrad currently attends the Columbia University/Juilliard School joint degree program and studies piano with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and Choong Mo Kang at Juilliard. He studies composition with Professor Christopher Theofanidis of Yale University and studied violin with Ms. Catherine Cho for five years in Juilliard’s Pre-College Division.
Tickets are available online at http://alliedarts.okstate.edu or by calling (405) 744-7509.
