NY Phil Artist Spotlight: Conrad Tao

• Conrad Tao, piano
• Charmaine Lee, voice
• The Westerlies

Join us for an evening with pianist and composer Conrad Tao. It's part of our new series showcasing some of today's most acclaimed and innovative musical artists.

About New York Philharmonic

https://nyphil.org/

About Conrad Tao, piano

https://www.conradtao.com/

About Charmaine Lee, voice

Charmaine Lee (b. 1991) is a New York-based vocalist from Sydney, Australia. Her music is predominantly improvised, favoring a uniquely personal approach to vocal expression concerned with spontaneity, playfulness, and risk-taking. Beyond extended vocal technique, Lee uses amplification, feedback, and microphones to augment and distort the voice. Lee has performed with leading improvisers id m theft able, Sam Pluta, Tyshawn Sorey, Nate Wooley, and C. Spencer Yeh, and maintains ongoing collaborations with Ikue Mori, Conrad Tao, and Eric Wubbels. She has performed at the Lincoln Center, the Kitchen, and MoMA and participated in festivals including Resonant Bodies and Huddersfield Contemporary. Lee has been featured in group exhibitions including The Moon Represents My Heart: Music, Memory and Belonging at the Museum of Chinese in America (2019). As a composer, Lee has been commissioned by HBO Max, International Contemporary Ensemble, the Wet Ink Ensemble, and Spektral Quartet. She has lectured at institutions including Princeton University, Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, and The New School. Lee was an Artist-in-Residence at ISSUE Project Room (2019) and Van Lier Fellow at Roulette (2021). She currently serves on the Board of ISSUE Project Room and on the Editorial Board of Sound American.

About The Westerlies

The Westerlies, "an arty quartet...mixing ideas from jazz, new classical, and Appalachian folk" (The New York Times) are a New York-based brass quartet comprised of childhood friends from Seattle: Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch on trombone. From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues and projects with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along.

Formed in 2011, the self-described "accidental brass quartet" takes its name from the prevailing winds that travel from the West to the East. "Skilled interpreters who are also adept improvisers" (NPR's Fresh Air), The Westerlies explore jazz, roots, and chamber music influences to create the rarest of hybrids: music that is both "folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous" (NPR Music).