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Lang Lang Wikipedia

Lang Lang (郎朗, pinyin: L?ng Lǎng) (born 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 Orchestrain 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 Zemin. 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 Andr? Watts at the Ravinia Festival's "Gala of the Century", in which he played Tchaikovsky's First Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (conducted by 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 an 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 Orchestra|Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic Orchestra|New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra|Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra|San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra|London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra|Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra|Sydney Symphony, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra|Israel Philharmonic, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He has collaborated with conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Franz Welser-M?st.

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 Waldb?hne was attended by 23,000 people and was broadcast internationally on TV. 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.

Lang Lang records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. 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.

Last Modified:   2005-03-09