Tadao Tomokyo

Tadao Tomokiyo, seventeen years old, is a student at Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studies classical piano with Walter Morales, jazz piano with Tom Roberts, organ with Alan Lewis, and horn with Molly Zebell. Tadao has attended multiple summers at the Interlochen Arts Camp—where he received the Fine Arts Award—as well as the Internationale Musik-Ferienwoche in Marktoberdorf, Germany, the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Having previously been a member of the Pittsburgh Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, he currently plays horn in the Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra, where he recently won the 2023—2024 Concerto Competition, and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, where he was the winner of the 2022–2023 Conducting Competition. As a chamber musician, Tadao has played with a wind quintet as part of Youth Chamber Connection; he currently plays with the Frippery Four horn quartet as well as a self-formed piano trio. He has also played with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Student Side-by-Side program. In addition, Tadao loves to play ragtime and New Orleans jazz, having attended the New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp in 2022. He has been featured at the West Coast Ragtime Society’s Spotlighting Ragtime Youth concert as well as the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest’s Junior Showcase. He has also performed at the West Coast Ragtime Festival and the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival, where he was selected as the Ragtime Kid of 2022. Tadao recently made his debut at Carnegie Hall as part of the InterHarmony Concert Series.