Classical music virtuoso who plays piano and tablet

Conrad Tao is a 19-year-old virtuoso who tries to push the limits of classical music by combining tradition and technology. His experiments include compositions for piano and iPad as well as stage performances with a bright pink toy piano.

Tao, a New Yorker, began playing children’s songs on the piano at just 18 months of age. He gave his first recital age four. He has won several awards, including the Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Gilmore Young Artist Award and eight consecutive Ascap Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.

He believes that classical music needs more than a marketing effort to attract a younger audience. It must “confront contemporary reality”, he says.