Digital Concert: Conrad Tao, piano

This is a Celebrity Series at Home Digital Performance

Digital performance tickets are sold individually or as an add-on to a subscription that originates with a live, in-person performance. A subscription must include at least one in-person performance, and digital performance tickets are not eligible for exchanges, even for qualified subscribers. This concert streams live on Wednesday, December 1, at 8pm from Longy's Pickman Hall, Cambridge and available on demand until Tuesday, December 7, at 7pm.

Experience the Celebrity Series headlining debut of an artist you’ll be hearing about for decades to come. Conrad Tao is proving to be the ultimate success story, a one-time child prodigy meeting impossibly high expectations and emerging not only as a technically spectacular player, but also a significant composer, collaborator, and representative of classical music’s next wave. Tao is truly spellbinding at the piano, employing a level of impeccable, nimble dexterity—practically perfect, never mechanical—that is simultaneously thrilling and soothing to behold.

The scope of his musical world is seriously compelling, too. Tao’s program is a wonderfully diverse selection of works by essential classical composers such as Bach, Schumann, and Beethoven; modern geniuses John Adams and Jason Eckardt; improvisations informed by other works on the program, plus the New England premiere of a brand-new original composition entitled Keyed In, co-commissioned by Celebrity Series of Boston. Such an unusually expansive list might seem unfocused at first glance, but closer examination will reveal how characteristically thoughtful it really is.

Conrad Tao / John Adams l  Improvisation / China Gates
Jason Eckardt l "Antennaria plantaginifolia" ("Pussytoes") from A Compendium of Catskill Native Botanicals, book 2
J.S. Bach / Conrad Tao l Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein, BWV 641 / Improvisation
Robert Schumann l Kinderszenen ("Scenes from Childhood"), Op. 15
Conrad Tao l Keyed In (New England premiere; co-commissioned by Celebrity Series)
Ludwig van Beethoven l Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110

The estimated runtime for this performance is 75 minutes, and there will be no intermission.

The 2021/22 Debut Series is generously sponsored by Harriet & David Griesinger and the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

This performance is made possible in part by support from Celebrity Series' LIVE PERFORMANCE! Arts for All Endowment and Innovation Funds with generous leadership support from Peter & Anna Kolchinsky and Cerise Lim Jacobs, for Charles. Additional support provided by Kathleen & Chris Gaffney, Marylen Sternweiler, Samuel & Gretchen Shubrooks, and Paul & Jennifer Sudduth Walsh.