Conrad Tao

Conrad Yiwen Tao (born June 11, 1994) is an American composer and pianist and former violinist. Tao's piano and violin performances since childhood brought him early recognition at music festivals and competitions. At age 13, he was featured on the PBS TV series From the Top – Live from Carnegie Hall as violinist, pianist and composer. He won eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Among his compositions have been commissions by the New York Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Among other honors, Tao is a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a Davidson Fellow Laureate and a Gilmore Foundation Young Artist. He was the only classical artist named by Forbes magazine in 2011 as one of the "30 Under 30" in the music industry. In 2012, Tao released a solo piano EP, The Juilliard Sessions: Conrad Tao Plays Debussy and Stravinsky, and a synthpop album, Eyelids. Several more albums have followed. Also in 2012, he was an Avery Fisher Career Grant awardee. He produced and hosted a three-night music festival, the UNPLAY Festival, in New York City in 2013. He was artist-in-residence for Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2015/16 and Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2017.

Early life and career Tao was born in Urbana, Illinois to Sam Tao, an engineer, and Mingfang Ting, a research scientist. Both parents were born in China and earned doctorates from Princeton University. Hearing his older sister Connie's piano lessons, Tao began to play children's songs on the piano, by ear, at the age of 18 months. He gave his first piano recital at age 4. At age 8, he made his concerto debut with the Utah Chamber Music Festival Orchestra, performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major. At the age of 9, Tao moved with his family to New York City, and he began studying in the Juilliard School's Pre-College Division and at the Professional Children's School. He won the 2003 Walgreens National Concerto Competition as a violinist.

Tao won eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards from 2004 to 2011. At age 10, his piano composition Silhouettes and Shadows won the BMI Carlos Surinach Prize. In reviewing a 2008 piano recital in Berkeley, where Tao gave the U.S. premiere of his "Fantasy-Sonata", the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "The four movements of the piece tumble forth in a way that supports its hybrid title, suggesting both a free flow of ideas and an overarching structural framework. There are melodies for the ear to grab onto – especially in the slow movement, set against rippling left-hand accompaniment – and Tao varies and subverts them with glee; the intermezzo, with its spidery octave figures, is a little gem of sardonic wit." Other early compositions include pieces for solo piano and chamber music such as Tao's 2009 piano trio.

He won both the Juilliard Pre-College Gina Bachauer Piano Competition and the Prokofiev Concerto Competition in 2006. By the age of 16, Tao had appeared as a piano soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Utah Symphony and San Francisco Symphony, among many others.

In 2008, Tao performed both Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor and Piano Concerto No. 1 in the same concert with the Miami Piano Festival Orchestra. He repeated that feat nine times the next year with the Symphony of the Americas in Boca Raton. The same year, critic Harris Goldsmith, in Musical America, called Tao "the most exciting prodigy ever to come my way. His promise is limitless." The Wall Street Journal wrote of a 2008 concert: "In Mozart's dark-hued Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, Mr. Tao showed appealing freshness in his use of telling, expressive details that distinguish one interpretation from the next – a slight decrescendo here, a change of tonal color there, a heartfelt response to the piece. The crossed-hand passages and rapid scale runs were performed with consummate ease." and Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre. Of a 2009 performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, the San Francisco Classical Voice commented: "The first movement was full of thrills: laser-sharp articulation and accuracy, powerful glissandos ... and, what's more, heartfelt expression. ... Expressiveness came even more to the fore in the second movement. Never have I heard a left hand with such hypnotic affect, with right-hand legato melodies as smooth as a trip down the Seine."

Tao studied piano with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Choong Mo Kang at Juilliard and composition with Christopher Theofanidis of Yale University. He studied violin with Catherine Cho at Juilliard's Pre-College Division.

2010 to 2011 Tao was composer-in-residence for the 2009–10 season with Chicago's Music in the Loft concert series. As part of this program, the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music commissioned his "String Quartet No. 2" for the Jasper Quartet, which they performed throughout the U.S. After hearing Tao play the premiere of his Three Songs for Piano (2010), the reviewer of The Washington Post called them "well-constructed miniatures exploiting different moods and textures on the piano. The juxtaposition was admirable; Tao made no bones about concealing his influences, with Debussy first and foremost. ... But influences aside, his compositional voice is not "derivative" at all; you can discern a clear, fresh imagination". Among Tao's 2010 performances was a concert with Utah Symphony that included Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. In the summer of 2010, Tao returned to the Aspen Music Festival as a guest artist to fill in on short notice as a piano soloist for an ailing Jeffrey Kahane. Of this schedule, he said: "It isn't always easy to be an active performer as well as a student. ... I love doing all of these things at once and giving myself as many challenges as I can, because I learn so much from the experiences that result. Everything I teach myself or see or do can be applied to a larger framework". Later the same year, Tao began college in the Columbia University–Juilliard School joint bachelor's degree program.

The New York Times praised Tao's performance of Chopin piano pieces while accompanying American Ballet Theatre dancers at a 2011 gala at New York City Center. Tao repeated Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody in 2011 with the Pacific Symphony. and was featured as both a piano and violin soloist in Jackie Evancho's 2011 album and PBS Great Performances special Dream with Me. In his 2011 Cliburn Concerts debut in Dallas, Texas, Tao was again a last-minute replacement, where he "continually uncovered the energy and emotional underpinnings inherent in [the] music".

Tao was the only classical artist named by Forbes magazine as one of the "30 Under 30" in the music industry in 2011. He won the 2011 Soloist-Prize at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, he was named a 2011 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts YoungArts program awarded him its gold medal in music. He was named a 2012 Gilmore Foundation Young Artist.

2012 to 2013 Tao travelled to Europe, South America and throughout North America to play more than 75 concerts in 2012. His concerts included Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Utah Symphony, Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Symphony of the Americas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, showing "a natural feel for the concerto's yearning melodies and restless energy". He gave his second annual recital in New York City called "A Piece for Peace" at Weill Recital Hall Tao also played a program with Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais in Brazil and performed three recitals at the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Michigan, where he gave "a stupendous performance. ... The first half was elegant. Fireworks followed." This was followed by performances in Munich, Paris, Berlin and London.

Tao was one of two Avery Fisher Career Grant awardees for 2012. Also in 2012, Tao played concerts in Mexico At the 2012 Aspen Music Festival, Tao played Gershwin's Second Rhapsody, followed by recitals in Avery Fisher Hall at the Mostly Mozart Festival.

The same year, he performed with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and his composition "Pángǔ", an overture-like modern piece inspired by the Chinese creation myth, was premiered by the Hong Kong Philharmonic, under Jaap van Zweden. In Toronto, Tao played Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto and Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6", and with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, he played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 He returned to Pacific Symphony to play the Grieg piano concerto with "crisply inflected and strongly sculpted fortissimos and effervescent scherzando playing." He also played with the Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra at the Concertgebouw. and, on less than three days' notice to replace another pianist, he joined St. Louis Symphony to play Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. He next played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 and the "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6" with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. That year, Face the Music's Pannonia Quartet played Tao's String Quartet No. 2, while Tao performed a recital at the Aspen Music Festival and then was in Switzerland playing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Bern Symphony Orchestra. In Florida he played all five of Beethoven's piano concerti with the Symphony of the Americas and also played the five with the Spokane Symphony. On short notice, he rejoined Utah Symphony, filling in for an ailing soloist in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. A New York Times review of Tao's concert previewing pieces from his 2013 album Voyages admired Tao's "confident and sensitive playing [and] the scope of his probing intellect and openhearted vision."

In between chamber music and concerto performances that year, His goal was to challenge the role of music as passive entertainment and the "narrow conception of what classical music is for, among not only audiences, but also musicians and presenters". Tao guest-hosted WQXR's Hammered! with a series of episodes in which he played works by modern composers that evoke memory and remembrance. He then returned to the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to play chamber music.

Other performances in 2013 included stops in Sweden and Chile. He played a recital and concertos by Shostakovich and Mozart with the Santa Fe Pro Musica and opened Pacific Symphony's 35th season with "crisp, clear-eyed and thoroughly musical" performances of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. With Detroit Symphony Orchestra, his Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 was described as "crisp and accurate, lively and dynamic, and very musical, with moments of thoughtful reflection". In Brazil, he performed the Britten's Piano Concerto with Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais, conducted by Fabio Mechetti. He returned to Weill Recital Hall in October for his third annual "A Piece for Peace" concert, playing works by Getty, Monk and Ravel. Tao again substituted on short notice with the Stamford Symphony Orchestra. Later in the year Tao premiered an orchestral work that he wrote for Dallas Symphony Orchestra to commemorate the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, The World Is Very Different Now (a line from JFK's 1961 inaugural address). A review on DFW.com called it "atmospheric, creating shifting moods. ... There are haunting passages that are strikingly appealing, though there are few, if any, sustained, well-defined melodic lines. Instead the work draws listeners by creating moods and with remarkable orchestral color." With the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, Tao performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 19.

2014 to 2015 In 2014, Tao rejoined the Oklahoma City Philharmonic to play Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, "illuminating the composer's acerbic wit, sly insouciance and unrelenting rhythmic drive." He repeated the concerto with the Utah Symphony. With the Nashville Symphony, he played Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, and with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, he played Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody and Liszt's "Totentanz". He performed Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra and played Totentanz and Rhapsody No. 6 with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm, he performed Gershwin's Concerto in F, followed by recitals and private concerts in Amsterdam, Shanghai China, and the United States, as well Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 in Pennsylvania. Tao again played the Saint-Saëns with the St. Louis Symphony, followed by concerts in Mexico, the Grieg piano concerto with Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO). He opened the Winston-Salem Symphony's season with Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody and played Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand with the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra. In October, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra played Tao's "Pángǔ", and he joined them to play Grieg's Piano Concerto. In Amsterdam, he made his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, performing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1. He played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in Norway with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Maine's Portland Symphony Orchestra.

Tao rejoined Baltimore Symphony to play Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 at several venues. He opened the New York Youth Symphony season at Carnegie Hall with Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody. Tao's composition "Public Service Announcement (dogs and cats)" was premiered at Merkin Hall in New York City in November by the New York Virtuoso Singers. He reprised the Rhapsody in Malaysia and also with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm. NPR selected Tao's performance of Bach's Toccata in F-sharp minor as one of public radio's best in-studio performances of 2014. Tao played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto among other pieces with the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, which also played his piece, "Pángǔ". He played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and, at short notice with the Utah Symphony, played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5. He joined the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra to play Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25, with "exuberant enchantment" and "seemingly innate storytelling ability".

Tao was the 2015/16 DSO Artist-in-residence, with whom he performed Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody, Aaron Copland's piano sonata, four of Rachmaninoff's Études-Tableaux, Op. 39, the violin-and-piano version of Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, Bartók's "Contrasts", Prokofiev's "Piano Sonata No. 7" and Miklós Rózsa's Spellbound Concerto, among other pieces. He also composed for the orchestra, curated concert programs, participated in radio broadcasts and gave recitals and master classes. Also in 2015, Tao played Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Hawaii Youth Symphony and gave several performances with San Diego Symphony, playing Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1, among other pieces. With Alabama Symphony Orchestra, he played Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. He played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and other works at the Music in the Mountains festival in California, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody with San Francisco Symphony, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Sun Valley Summer Symphony. He returned to the Aspen Music Festival to play several programs that included Schumann's "Carnaval", Poulenc's sextet for piano and wind, and Beethoven's Fantasia in C minor.

Later in 2015, Tao premiered his concerto An Adjustment for piano, chamber orchestra, and iGadgets, at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, where he was also the soloist in Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2. Inspired by Tao's experiences with depression, An Adjustment combines "in the most imaginative way the current style of spiritual post-Romanticism and '90s techno club music." Tao made stops in Europe, Brazil and the U.S. to play concerts including a recital based on his album, Pictures. He rejoined Pacific Symphony with Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3.

2016 to 2017 In 2016, Tao played Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Tallahassee Symphony in Florida, and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and Mozart's Concerto No. 7, among other pieces, with the San Diego Philharmonic. With Cincinnati Symphony, he played Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody. With West Michigan Symphony, he played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and next performed the Grieg Piano Concerto in Calgary, Karol Szymanowski's Symphony No. 4, Symphonie Concertante, with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Tchaikovsky's No. 1 with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra,

With the Swedish Radio Symphony, he played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4, and he played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Berkeley Symphony. Tao returned to the DSO to finish his year as artist-in-residence with a recital and the premiere of his orchestral composition, Alice, which was inspired by his recurring childhood nightmares, sometimes described as Alice in Wonderland syndrome. He accompanied the premiere of David Lang's opera The Loser on stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Tao played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Giuseppe Verdi Symphonic Orchestra in Milan, Italy, and his composition, I got a wiggle that I just can’t shake was premiered by the Pacific Symphony. Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody with the Hawaii Symphony, Grieg's Piano Concerto with the Nashville Symphony, both Schumann's Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 at the National Arts Centre in Canada, Szymanowski's Symphony No. 4 with the Szczecin Philharmonic in Poland and Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, with Staatskapelle Halle in Germany. He also played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Peninsula Symphony, Gershwin's Concerto in F with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Italy

In 2017 he gave a recital for the Van Cliburn Foundation in Dallas and a concert with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, playing Charles Ives' Piano Trio, and the Dvořák Piano Trio No. 3 in F Minor. With Portland Ovations in Maine, he played the same two trios, plus the Haydn Piano Trio No. 39 in G Major. Among other concerts, he played with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco of Guadalajara, Mexico and gave recitals at the Aspen Music Festival. He premiered his own "free-form" piano concerto, The Oneiroi in New York with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Tao was the Hong Kong Philharmonic's 2017 artist-in-residence, with whom he premiered his swallow harbor. He played the Grieg piano concert with Stamford Symphony in Connecticut With Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, he played his piece, "Pángǔ", and Gershwin's Concerto in F. Winston-Salem's symphony orchestra performed his The world is very different now, and he joined them to perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. Tao played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 8 at the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, California, and Khachaturian's piano concerto with the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago before returning to the Aspen Music Festival.

With Philadelphia Orchestra he played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concert No. 2 and with the Columbus ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, he premiered his own work for piano and orchestra, Over, and played Haydn's Keyboard Concerto 11. With Eugene Symphony he played Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Liszt's Totentanz, and with Spokane Symphony, he returned to Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2. He then played Schumann's Piano Concerto with Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. Later in 2017 he made his Lincoln Center recital debut, where he received an Emerging Artist Award, and returned to Berkeley to play Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody and Liszt's "Totentanz" He wrote an encore, "All I Had Forgotten, Or Tried To", inspired by Kevin Killian's collection of erotic fiction, Impossible Princess.

Since 2018 In early 2018, in addition to recitals, Tao's schedule included Bernstein's The Age of Anxiety with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto with Seattle, Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Santa Fe Pro Musica and Gershwin's Concerto in F with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he toured Poland in March 2018. He also formed the JCT Trio with violinist Stefan Jackiw and cellist Jay Campbell. In contrast to Tao's solo recitals, which focus on unconventional programming, the JCT Trio programs traditional repertoire. and Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra for Bartók's Piano Concert No. 3. The same month, Tao's violin sonata, Threads of Contact, premiered by Paul Huang and commissioned by Washington Performing Arts, for whom Tao has been a recitalist, was performed at the Kennedy Center. In May, Tao's dance composition, More Forever, was premiered by Caleb Teicher and Company in New York City, beginning an ongoing collaboration with Teicher. Tao was nominated for a 2019 Bessie Award for Musical Composition of More Forever. Tao returned to Aspen in June. In September, the New York Philharmonic premiered Tao's Everything Must Go, the fifth Tao work premiered by conductor Jaap van Zweden; the piece was commissioned as a prelude to Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 and takes inspiration from that piece. In October he again performed with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In November, Tao performed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with San Diego Symphony.

In January 2019, Tao repeated Teicher's More Forever at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (and then on tour) and also continued to collaborate with Jackiw in Vancouver, Canada, at the 92nd Street Y in New York, and on tour. The next month, he reprised his performance in Lang's The Loser, this time with the Los Angeles Opera, In March he performed Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Pacific Symphony. and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In July, Tao, together with violinist Stefan Jackiw and cellist Jay Campbell, who frequently perform as the JCT Trio, played Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in July. The same month, with Cleveland Orchestra, he played Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, and with the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail, he played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2. Also in 2019, Tao gave a recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

In 2024, PBS recorded Tao performing Bach's Keyboard Concerto #4 in A major, BWV 1055, with Jonathon Heyward conducting, for the program Lincoln Center Presents followed by an encore solo performance of Elliott Carter's "Caténaires" (2006). The same year, Tao won the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. In January 2025, he played a recital at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Commissioned by the Jacksonville Symphony, Tao premiered his piano concerto, Clang and Shudder, in April. The following month, Tao stepped in at the last moment to replace the ailing Alice Sara Ott, playing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra. In June Tao revisited Rachmaninoff's Piano Concert No. 2 with the New Jersey Symphony for their season finale.

Reputation as a pianist

Teenage performances Rick Schulz of the Los Angeles Times wrote of a concert by the 16-year-old Tao: "In a dashing account of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody, his attacks were crisp, with rhythmically tricky high-velocity passages cleanly articulated. ... Tao avoided sentimentality, his concentration drawing us into the composer's spare and witty work as few virtuosos of any age can do." Of Tao's performance of all five of Beethoven's piano concerti that year, David Fleshler commented in South Florida Classical Review: "The mastery he displayed was more than the predictable brilliance of the grown-up prodigy, it was a performance that brought out the nobility, the eloquence and the dramatic power of these works." Larry Lapidus of The Spokesman-Review called the five concerti "a richly rewarding – indeed, unforgettable – musical experience" noting, that "Tao played the lengthy and difficult Concerto No. 1 ... without a flaw: not a missed or imperfectly struck note, not a careless or routine phrase, not a poorly voiced chord."

Of his 2018 performance of Gershwin's Concerto in F with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Mary Kunz Goldman wrote: "Tao has a fine percussive touch. He hammers away at the piece with flawless staccato energy. ... The end of the first movement was so tumultuous and perfectly calibrated that the crowd burst into illicit applause. The Andante movement had a bluesy, bittersweet quality. The concluding Allegro brought Tao back to attack mode. ... The snap-bang ending brought the listeners to their feet ... happy and shouting." Justin Davidson wrote of this album, "he plays his confidently poetic Three Songs, which hold their own with a pair of Debussy preludes and Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka." The same year, Tao released a synthpop album, Eyelids, and a recording of Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 25 with Santa Fe Pro Musica Orchestra.

In early 2013, Tao released an album, Gordon Getty: Piano Pieces, on the PENTATONE label. Tao's debut full-length solo album, on EMI Classics, Voyages, featuring Tao's compositions together with pieces by Meredith Monk, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, was released on June 11, 2013. The album reached No. 8 on the Billboard Classical Albums chart. Allmusic rates the album four stars out of five. Davidson wrote: "The playing induces shivers. The [Rachmaninoff] C minor prelude (Op. 23, No. 7) gushes out in quiet cataracts, lyrical and shimmering, a tour de force of delicacy and power." Despite Tao's skepticism about a classical music establishment that is "grossly normative, capitalistic, and steeped in established, unchallenged practices", commented one reviewer, Voyages is "perfect in all the conventional ways: masterfully performed and composed ... cleanly produced, and impeccably sequenced. ... It's an absolute joy to hear him fly through each of these pieces, the essences of which are not overwhelmed but rather recontextualized, given new life ... [Tao] has the creative mind to think of them in new ways." Fanfare magazine also gave the album a very warm review, and the producers of the album were nominated for a Grammy Award. A reviewer for NPR wrote:

In 2015, Tao released Pictures, an album of piano music, on the Warner Classics label. It features Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, together with works by Elliott Carter, Toru Takemitsu, David Lang and Tao. In 2019 he released another album, American Rage. He followed this in 2021 with Bricolage together with the brass quartet The Westerlies.