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Lang Lang (郎朗,pinyin: Láng Lǎng) (b. June 14, 1982) is a pianist who hails from Shenyang, China.
He began piano lessons at the age of three with Professor Zhu Ya-Fen. At the age of five he won the Shenyang Piano Competition and played his first public recital. He entered Beijing's Central Music Conservatory when he was nine, studying with Professor Zhao Ping-Guo. At the age of 11, he won the first prize and award for outstanding artistic performance at the Fourth International Young Pianists Competition in Germany. In 1995 at 13 years of age, he played the complete Chopin 24 Etudes at Beijing Concert Hall and won first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians' Competition in Japan, where he performed the Chopin Concerto No. 2 with the Moscow Philharmonic in a concert broadcast by NHK Television. At 14 he was a featured soloist at the China National Symphony's inaugural concert, broadcast by CCTV and attended by President Jiang Ze-Min. The following year he began studies with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
Lang Lang's breakthrough came in 1999, when he was 17, with his dramatic last-minute substitution (introduced by Isaac Stern) for an indisposed André Watts at the Ravinia Festival's "Gala of the Century", in which he played Tchaikovsky's First Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (cond. Christoph Eschenbach). The Chicago Tribune called him the biggest, most exciting keyboard talent encountered in many years. In 2001 he made his sold-out Carnegie Hall debut with Temirkanov, travelled to Beijing with the Philadelphia Orchestra on a tour celebrating its 100th anniversary, during which he performed to an audience of 8,000 at the Great Hall of the People, and made a wildly acclaimed BBC Proms debut, prompting The Times of London's critic to write: "Lang Lang took a sold-out Royal Albert Hall by storm...This could well be history in the making." In 2003, he returned to the BBC Proms for the First Night concert with Leonard Slatkin. After his recent recital debut in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Berliner Zeitung wrote: "Lang Lang is a superb musical performer whose artistic touch is always in service of the music."
Lang Lang has performed with the major orchestras of the world, including the Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He has collaborated with conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Levine, Maazel, Mehta, Simon Rattle, Sawallisch, Temirkanov, Tilson Thomas, and Welser-Möst. He makes regular recital appearances in the main concert halls of major cities all over the world. His schedule of frequent visits to Asia includes concerts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, with the Philadelphia Orchestra in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia and New Year's concerts (2005) with the China Philharmonic in Shanghai and Beijing.
The subject of a best-selling biography in China, Lang Lang has received numerous awards and has been seen by millions of television viewers throughout the world. He has appeared with Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in a performance that was broadcast by Russian National Television. His 2004 performance with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic at the Waldbühne was attended by 23,000 people and was broadcast internationally on TV. As a Steinway artist, he recently received the first-ever Gold Medallion on the occasion of the company's 150th anniversary. In the summer of 2002, he became the first recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, in recognition of his distinguished musical talent. Earlier that year, CNN featured him internationally on three programs: NewsNight with Aaron Brown, CNN Sunday Morning with Kyra Phillips, and Inside Asia. In 2003, Lang Lang made television appearances on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ABC's Good Morning America, PBS' Live from Lincoln Center, and BBC Television. He has also been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Teen People's issue highlighting the "Top Twenty Teens Who Will Change the World", Entertainment Weekly and in People Magazine's "Best of 2003" issue.
Lang Lang records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophone. His first DG album featured the Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn First Piano Concertos, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, and it has remained on Billboard's top-selling classical charts for over 40 weeks. His second album, which was released in March 2004 and appeared immediately on the German pop charts, is a live recording of his Carnegie recital debut. His third DG recording, due out in early 2005, will feature Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Valery Gergiev conducting the Kirov Orchestra.
In addition to demonstrating an extraordinary level of musicianship in the widest range of repertoire, Lang Lang's artistry and ability to connect with audiences on a personal level has established him as an international sensation and one of the most exciting and charismatic artists of our time. He is the first Chinese pianist to have been engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and many of the world's leading orchestras.
Besides his music career, he is passionately dedicated to sharing music with young people and was recently recognized for his efforts by the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) who appointed him their newest and youngest international Goodwill Ambassador. In this role, Lang Lang will garner support and raise funds for the survival and well-being of under-privileged children all over the world.
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