The Music Institute of Chicago Presents Pianist Conrad Tao Tonight, 5/19

The Music Institute of Chicago presents accomplished and critically acclaimed 17-year-old Chinese-American pianist Conrad Tao in its second annual Emilio del Rosario Distinguished Alumni Concert tonight, May 19 at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston. 

Tao will perform Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110; selected Rachmaninoff Preludes from Op. 23 and 32; Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage: 1e année: Suisse, S.160, and “Rigoletto” De Verdi – Paraphrase De Concert; Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Petroushka; and Tao’s own composition Three Songs. 

About Conrad Tao

An Illinois native and former student of the Music Institute’s late, legendary faculty member Emilio del Rosario, pianist Conrad Tao has been hailed as “the most exciting prodigy to ever come my way” by renowned music critic Harris Goldsmith in Musical America. He has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and many others, as well as in solo recitals worldwide. Highlights of the 2011–12 season include his Detroit Symphony debut, 11 concerto performances in Florida, as well as recitals in Berlin, Paris, and Munich as part of a European tour and performances with orchestras in Mexico, Brazil, and Poland. He is the winner of the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and Forbes magazine selected him as one of “30 Under 30 in Music.” An accomplished composer, Tao is an eight-time consecutive winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer award. He attends the Columbia University-Juilliard School joint degree program, studying piano, and he also studies composition at Yale University. His 2010 composition Three Songs, as well as his performances of two Debussy preludes and Stravinsky’sTrois mouvements de Petroushka, have just been released on iTunes as part of The Juilliard Sessions, a partnership between EMI Classics and The Juilliard School.