The only classical musician on Forbes' 2011 "30 Under 30" list of people changing the world, 18-year-old Chinese-American pianist Conrad Tao was found playing children's songs on the piano at 18 months of age. Born in Urbana, Illinois, he gave his first piano recital at age 4; four years later, he made his concerto debut performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 414. In June of 2011, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the Department of Education named Conrad a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, while the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts awarded him a YoungArts gold medal in music. Later that year, Conrad was named a Gilmore Young Artist, an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. In May of 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. In January of 2012, Conrad's performance of Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was hailed by the Detroit News as "a blazing debut...a performance no less seductive in its lyrical beauty than hair-raising in its technical brilliance." Following a recital at Carnegie's Weill Hall in February of 2012, the New York Times wrote of the "lovely

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"Tao is a composer-pianist, blessed with prodigal performing skill and compositional imagination."

The Independent by Andy Gill May 31st 2013

"Unlike many classical prodigies of similarly and stupendously young ages, Tao proves himself to be a musician of deep intellectual and emotional means... on Voyages, the pianist journeys along varied and alluring pathways, from the dreamy contemplation of the Ravel "Ondine (Wave)" movement to the jaggedly darting upon being section from his vestiges. His playing is strong and sure, and the effect is transcendent and beautiful."

NPR First Listen by Anastasia Tsioulcas Jun 2nd 2013

"At 17, the musician Conrad Tao is already impressively accomplished.That Mr. Tao, who gave his first recital at 4, is hugely gifted was evident from the outset. He opened with a cleanly articulated, fluid and fleet rendition of Bach’s “Italian” Concerto. He played the slow second movement with poise and feeling. His impressive technique allows him to navigate difficult works with ease; the finale of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata unfolded in an exciting blaze of notes. He brought lovely colors and poetic nuances to three works by Liszt: “Au bord d’une Source,” “Vallée d’Obermann” and the “Rigoletto” Paraphrase.The program concluded with Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7. Mr. Tao spoke eloquently about the work and played it with fiery panache."

New York Times Mar 1st 2012

"Eighteen-year-old Chinese-American pianist Conrad Tao was the soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No21. Excellently partnered by the orchestra, he generated some wonderful subtleties of phrasing during the opening movement, a light-as-air sense of line in the next and a different glint in the eye for every few bars of the finale. He played Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No6 as an encore with impressive panache and musicianship. The rapt attention and half smiles on the orchestra's faces said more than I can achieve in a few words here."

South China Morning Post Feb 18th 2013

"Remember the name Conrad Tao. You’re going to be hearing a lot about him. Tao, who was to make his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut next season, stepped in to play Sergei Prokofiev’s tricky Piano Concerto No. 3 with the SLSO on less than three days’ notice, when an ailing Markus Groh had to cancel. The Prokofiev is a big, sweeping score that requires wit on the part of its interpreter while making intense technical demands. Tao flung it all off with insouciant ease and apparent enjoyment, in a real triumph that was fully supported and shared by the conductor and orchestra, in a score that’s a challenge for everyone. Tao’s flair and musicality won him a huge ovation, which he rewarded with an equally demanding encore. It will be rewarding to watch him continue to develop as an artist. That continued through the Prokofiev (where you’d have thought that Lintu and Tao had been working together for years) and the symphony."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Feb 2nd 2013

"Musical precociousness can manifest itself in countless ways, from the gifted child who loves to boast about his accomplishments to those who channel their talents into more productive outcomes. Conrad Tao clearly belongs to the latter group, a pianist of exceptional talent who made a spectacular debut on the Oklahoma City Philharmonic's 2012-13 season opener. In a lifetime of concertgoing, I've encountered many artists who use music to play the piano. Tao uses the piano to make music."

Look at OKC Sep 18th 2012

"Whatever the age cut-off may be for child prodigies, 17-year-old pianist Conrad Tao has left that category somewhere back in his young past. To judge from his debut Saturday night with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Tao already owns a place among the world's musical virtuosos. Prodigious he is indeed. To put it plainly, Tao blew the doors off Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor with a performance that was no less seductive in its lyrical beauty than hair-raising in its technical brilliance."

Detroit News Jan 23rd 2012

"Conrad Tao is for real. The 17-year-old American pianist, whose star has only grown brighter in the 15 months since he bowled over the Abravanel Hall crowd as a last-minute substitute for Horacio Gutiérrez in Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody, showed that his return invitation was well-earned. His bravura performance of another crowd-pleasing warhorse, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, elicited a rowdy ovation from the near-sellout house on Friday."

Salt Lake City Tribune Jan 6th 2012

"The most impressive element here...was his breathtaking command of rubato and his ability...to make these works of Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and even Stravinsky sing."

D Dallas Magazine Sep 14th 2011

"If NASA had a tenth of his talent, they’d be farming strawberries on Titan by now"

San Francisco Classical Voice May 5th 2009

"the most prodigious individual performance since the first coming of Lang Lang in 1997"

Singapore Sun Times

"It would be silly to advise keeping an eye out for Conrad Tao, or to suggest that this young man is going places. He's already there, and he's only going to get better."

San Francisco Chronicle Oct 4th 2008

"The story of Conrad Tao’s life in music begins the way tales of early talent often do: At 18 months, he toddled to the piano and started picking out “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Last month—a whole childhood later—Tao strode onto the stage of ­Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and plunged into Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7, a desperate wartime work shot through with terrified epiphanies. No 17-year-old should be able to do justice to one of the most bleakly adult pieces in the literature, yet he played it with aggressive charm and flashes of genuine wisdom."

New York Magazine Mar 25th 2012

"It was a 17-year-old keyboard polymath from NYC named Conrad Tao, who stole the show with a once-in-a-lifetime performance of the rarely-encountered American Suite, Op. 98. Tao is ready for his own TV show: he plays music as if the composer were at his side, with color, joy and spontaneous poetry. He composes, studies, researches, writes. He uses words like "gestation" when he talks. Like that whiz kid on the West Coast, Conrad Tao should be licensed to operate by the time he's 21. "

All Things Strings Jun 4th 2012

"It was Tao, who just turned 18, who delivered the most arresting performance, attacking the Second Rhapsody with a lethal combination of power, rhythmic thrust, technical perfection and sheer joy."

Aspen Times Jul 3rd 2012