Conrad Tao is always doing something. A couple years ago, I was blown away by the New York City pianist’s curated program at SF Symphony’s experimental sensation Soundbox. Intense on the keys, the young player’s adventurousness in his music was almost scandalous. (We ended up raving all night together at F8 afterwards, during which I might have been a bit gushy.) Seeing him recently on NPR’s Tiny Desk busting the ivories with tap dancer Caleb Teicher was a real treat, and I’m still kicking myself for missing his Cal Performances recital last year, which included inspiration from avant-garde poetry.

Now he’s back with another innovative program at San Francisco Performances (Fri/17, 7:30pm, Herbst Theatre, SF): tracing composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s influence on classic pop of the 20th cen

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