from the artistic director
SALON CONRAD TAO 2021 Festival Artistic Director
Thursday February 11, 2021
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CONRAD TAO, PIANO
2021 FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
“Conrad is the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music.” VIRTUAL CONCERT Thursday, February 11, 2021
CONRAD TAO, PIANO 2021 Festival Artistic Director
Magnets improvisation JOHN ADAMS
China Gates
RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER
Piano Study in Mixed Accents (Ossia II)
TANIA LEÓN
Rituál
RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER
Piano Study in Mixed Accents (Ossia I)
MOZART
Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major, K. 332: II. Adagio
BACH
“Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein,” BWV 641
CONRAD TAO
Grids of E
BRAHMS
Intermezzo Op. 118, No. 2
Laguna Beach Music Festival is presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Laguna Beach Live! All dates, times, artists, programs and prices are subject to change.
— NEW YORK MAGAZINE Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer, and has been dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times, who also cited him “one of five classical music faces to watch” in the 2018-19 season. Tao is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and was named a Gilmore Young Artist—an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. At the 2019 New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessies”), Tao was the recipient of the award for Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition, for his work on More Forever, his collaboration with Caleb Teicher. Tao’s 2018-19 season began with the New York Philharmonic’s world premiere of their commission Everything Must Go, and the inaugural concert of their curated late-night concert series Nightcap. He also made his LA Opera debut in the West Coast premiere of David Lang’s adaptation of Thomas Bernhard’s the loser, and made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, alongside summer debuts with The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony. In Europe he was presented by the Swedish Radio Symphony in recital and in Andrew Norman’s Suspend alongside Susanna Mälkki; he also returned to the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, performing with Antonio Pappano. In the 2019-20 season, Tao will be presented in recital by Carnegie Hall, performing works by David Lang, Bach, Julia Wolfe, Jason Eckhardt, Carter, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann. He will also make his debut in recital at Walt Disney Hall, where the LA Phil will present him in works by Copland and Frederic
In addition to concert halls, he will also tour to college campuses, including the University of Notre Dame, UC Berkeley, Humboldt State University, Oregon State University, and Princeton University. Tao’s acclaimed eveninglength collaboration with choreographer Caleb Teicher, More Forever, will be presented by Celebrity Series of Boston, and will make its West Coast premiere at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Orange County, CA, presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. His ongoing electroacoustic collaboration with improviser and vocalist Charmaine Lee continues with an openingnight performance at the 2019 Resonant Bodies Festival in New York. In the spring, Tao will tour with the JCT Trio—his ensemble with violinist Stefan Jackiw and cellist Jay Campbell—to Massachusetts, Washington D.C., Ohio, Texas, and New Mexico. He will also celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday at the 92Y with Anthony de Mare, premiering a new two-piano take on “Move On,” from Sunday in the Park with George. As a curator and producer, Tao presented the UNPLAY Festival in June 2013 at the powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn. The festival, hailed by The New York Times for its “clever organization” and “endlessly engaging” performances, featured Tao with guest artists performing a wide variety of new works. Across three nights encompassing electroacoustic
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rzewski. Following his debut at Blossom, The Cleveland Orchestra will present Tao in Severance Hall in a special program featuring music by Mary Lou Williams and Ligeti, and improvisation alongside pianist Aaron Diehl. Concerto highlights in the upcoming season include performances of his own work for piano & orchestra, The Oneiroi in New York, with the Seattle Symphony, as well as performances with the Baltimore, Charlotte, and Pacific Symphonies. He will also perform The Oneiroi alongside Galina Ustvolskaya’s Piano Concerto with the Phoenix Symphony. In March 2020, Tao’s piece Everything Must Go will receive its European premiere with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and conductor Edo de Waart.
music, performance art, youth ensembles, and much more, UNPLAY explored the fleeting ephemera of the Internet, the notion of canonization in the 21st century, and the role music plays in social activism and critique. A Warner Classics recording artist, Tao’s debut disc Voyages was declared a “spiky debut” by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross. Of the album, NPR wrote: “Tao proves himself to be a musician of deep intellectual and emotional means – as the thoughtful programming on this album…proclaims.” His next album, Pictures, with works by David Lang, Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter, Mussorgsky, and Tao himself, was hailed by The New York Times as “a fascinating album [by] a thoughtful artist and dynamic performer…played with enormous imagination, color and command.” His latest album, American Rage, was released to acclaim in Fall 2019 and featured works by Julia Wolfe, Frederic Rzewski and Aaron Copland. Conrad’s creative process behind the album was highlighted as part of a November 2019 profile in The New York Times. Tao was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1994. He has studied piano with Emilio del Rosario in Chicago and Yoheved Kaplinsky in New York, and composition with Christopher Theofanidis. Representation: Opus3artists.com 3
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PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY OF ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers
Donna L. Kendall Chairman, CEO Sabra Bordas Vice Chairman
John Flemming Vice Chairman
Kimberly Dwan Bernatz Immediate Past Chairman
Stephen Amendt Secretary/Treasurer
Executive Committee
John W. Benecke Development
JoAnn Fuerbringer Orange County Youth Symphony
Elaine P. Neuss Artistic and Marketing
Sabra Bordas Nominating
Jane K. Grier Member at Large
Douglas H. Smith Foundation
Hung Fan Laguna Beach Music Festival
Jean Felder President, The Committees
Jim Brophy
Margaret M. Gates
David Troob
Gary Capata
Wesley Kruse
Kim Weddon
Joanne C. Fernbach
Barbara Roberts
Kathryn Wopschall
President and Artistic Director
Tommy Phillips 4
LAGUNA BEACH MUSIC FESTIVAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Festival Chairman Hung Fan Board of Trustees John (Chimo) Arnold Diane Arnold Anita Halton Joan Halvajian Ron Harris Judith Jelinek Patricia Morgan Lauren Packard Tommy Phillips Lucinda Prewitt
LAGUNA BEACH LIVE! BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Lucinda Prewitt Chairman Rick Malcolm Secretary Robert Schlesinger Treasurer Joe Hanauer Board of Trustees Susan Davis Sam Goldstein Dan Haspert, M.D. Judith Jelinek
Betsy Jenkins Danny Melita Elizabeth Pearson Steve Wood 5
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