Pictured: Hermitage Fellow Conrad Tao by Brantley Gutierrez.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Sarasota County, Florida) is pleased to announce the third annual concert in the Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Series at the Hermitage, featuring award-winning composer and pianist Conrad Tao. This event will take place on Thursday, March 28 at 7pm, at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in downtown Sarasota. This alumni music initiative was launched in 2022 to a full-capacity crowd at Selby Gardens with “Soulful Strings: An Evening of Harp Music,” featuring celebrated harpist and Hermitage alumna Ashley Jackson. Last year’s concert, “The Pop-Folk World of Zoe Sarnak,” featured award-winning New York City-based Hermitage alum Zoe Sarnak, with Sarasota-based vocalists and musicians performing Sarnak’s original songs in partnership with the Nathan Benderson Park Conservancy. This year, the Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Series at the Hermitage returns to classical music with world-renowned pianist, composer, and Hermitage Fellow Conrad Tao. Tao is a leader within a new generation of contemporary classical music. A former prodigy, Tao has emerged as a mature, thoughtful, and thought-provoking artist with both a singular vision and the talent to realize it. He has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer and had been dubbed "the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music," by New York Magazine, and an artist of "probing intellect and open-hearted vision," by The New York Times. This outdoor event is free and open to the public with a $5/person registration fee. Tickets will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis, at which time registration will shift to a waitlist; this series has frequently reached capacity.

Pictured: Hermitage Fellow Conrad Tao by Brantley Gutierrez.