Chen Tao:

>> an internationally acclaimed Chinese flutist, music educator, composer and conductor of Chinese orchestra, is the founder and director of the Melody of Dragon, Inc., co-founder and director of Melody of Dragon & the Youth, the artistic director and conductor of the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York and conductor of New Jersey Buddha's light Youth Chinese Orchestra. The executive chairman of NY Chinese Music Instruments International Competition since 2015 and Artistic director of New York Guqin Association. Music director of chamber & ensemble at Bard College conservatory of Music.

Before coming to the US, Chen Tao was an Associate Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and a member of the Chinese Folk Wind and String Instrument Association. Chen Tao graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in 1986, from the Folk Music Department. His performing style combines the refined elegance of the southern school and the robust liveliness of the northern school. The sound of his flute is full, round, and rich, and is marked by a unique timbre that can truly be described as enchanting.

Chen Tao is not only a specialist on the flute, xiao and xun, but he is also a virtuoso performer on other wind instruments such as the bawu, koudi, chiba and other folk wind instruments. In 1989 he entered the National Folk Instrument competition and won first place. On several occasions he represented various groups of Chinese musicians, including the Chinese Buddhist Musicians Ensemble, and visited the US, Germany, Italy, France, England, Holland, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. During a trip to England he collaborated with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. He also collaborated with The Orchestra National de Lyon and The National Symphony Orchestra of Portugal on the performances that won high praise. In 2003, his Xun concerto "Orchestral Theatre I� Xun with Symphony Orchestra", composed by Tan Dun, was recorded into CD and DVD with Belgium National Flemish Radio Orchestra and will be published global wide by DG. His playing can be heard on several soundtracks of Hollywood movies including Seven Years in Tibet, Corrupter (with the New York Philharmonic), The White Countess, and the PBS documentary Under the Red Flag, the Voice of China, Becoming American and Italian movie "Singing behind Screen". In the US, The New York Times called him a "poet in music" and his playing "a miracle of the oriental flute." While on tour in Germany in 1989, the maestro Herbert von Karajan praises him as an artist whom "performed with his soul."

Since coming to the US in 1993, Chen Tao has been invited to perform and lecture throughout the country. His first solo concert in the New York area was successfully held in December 1993. His second Flute Recital was successfully held in Carnegie Hall by the New York Flute Club in 2001. He has performed at the Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center with different groups including the Manhattan School of Music's Chamber Orchestra--The Music Consort, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, H. T. Chen Dancers. China Institute in America invited him to perform and lecture on the Chinese flute during their spring season since 1995. He made his first Internet flute lesson for www.2measures.com in 2002. The New York City based World Journal and Tsingtao Daily have called him "the king of the flute" and a "master of the art of the flute."

Chen Tao is not only a virtuoso performer of Chinese folk music. He has also performed and recorded modern compositions by such well known composers as Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Joan La Barbara, Carter Burwell, Bun-Ching Lam and Qu Xiao-song. He is acclaimed as a pioneer performer in the world of new music.

As a music educator, Chen Tao have been leading the Melody of Dragon collaborating with Midori & Friends foundation, to develop Chinese music culture in numerous elementary schools, high schools throughout Metropolitan area. As a composer, his music for flute "Leaves on Fall River", for Bawu Music "Phoenix Tail Bamboo beneath the Moon", for Chinese orchestra "Dance of Yun Nan", for Chinese Flute and Chinese Drum "Dream of Dun Huang" and many others have been recorded on CD. His new orchestra piece "Mindful of Zen�flute with orchestra" was commissioned by The council of New Jersey Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage. In 2007, his flute and drum music "Dream of Dun Huang" was commissioned by Nai Ni Chen Dance Company and performed as World Premiere at New Jersey Performing Arts Center. His network teaching program "Chen Tao 100 episodes Dizi teaching" has been published on YouKu (the largest network in China) since 2015, benefitted by thousands of hundreds Dizi students.

The Central People's Broadcasting Station, the Beijing People's Broadcasting Station, and Radio Shanghai have all arranged special programs to introduce his art. In addition, cable stations in both New Jersey and New York (channel 31) have run programs devoted to Chen Tao and his craft. Outside of performing, Chen Tao has also authored several professional articles on folk music. He has been invited by Beijing University, Qinghua University, Fudan University, Columbia University, Syracuse University, Colgate University, College of Charleston, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Rutgers University, Yale University, Harvard university, Cambridge University in England and New Jersey Performing Arts Center to lecture and perform. In February 1996, invited by Taiwan's National Music Ensemble in Taipei, Chen Tao held a concerto performance in the National Hall of Music and delivered a lecture on flute music, both of which garnered tremendous critical acclaim.

Chen Tao is truly an outstanding figure in the realm of woodwind music, both in China and throughout the world.

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