A graduate of Columbia University and Mannes College of Music, Aaron Dai began studying piano at the age of 5 and went on to win the UNICEF Youth Concerts Competition three times by the age of 15. He has concertized around the country, performing in New York venues such as CAMI Hall, Steinway Hall, and Symphony Space, and cities such as Philadelphia, Houston, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Mr. Dai has studied with Rachael Perez-Hayes, Denise Kahn, and Hugo Goldenzweig. Other studies include Russian piano performance with Inessa Zaretsky (Mannes), and accompaniment and collaborative piano with Marshall Williamson (Juilliard).

Mr. Dai's venture into serious composition began at the University of Pennsylvania under the auspices of George Crumb, and he has since worked with composers Thomas Addison and Rudolph Palmer. The world premiere of his Unionville Suite was performed in May 2006 by the City Orchestra of New York. More recently, his acclaimed The Night Before Christmas for Narrator and Orchestra has been performed by The Chelsea Symphony and the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and actors Richard Kind (2006), Ana Gasteyer (2007), David Hyde Pierce (2008), Charles Busch (2009), Andrea Martin (2010), and Rachel Dratch (2011). Con Furia (Four is Louise), an orchestral/vocal work written in collaboration with American abstract painter Louise Fishman and poet Eileen Myles, debuted in January 2009 with soprano Ariadne Greif and baritone Ricardo Rivera, and his fifteen-minute miniature opera Hamlet premiered with Darius de Haas in the title role in New York in March 2010.  Mr. Dai is the recipient of a 2011-2012 ASCAPLUS Award, Concert Music Division.

Mr. Dai was the Musical Consultant for the award-winning Off-Broadway play The Temperamentals by Pulitzer-nominated playwright Jon Marans. A former clarinetist, oboist, and bassoonist, he is now a staff pianist and vocal coach at Mannes College of Music and the pianist for the New York City Gay Men's Chorus. Mr. Dai lives and teaches in New York City.