Lang Lang (Chinese: 郎朗; pinyin: Láng Lǎng), born June 14, 1982, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, is a Chinese concert pianist, currently residing in New York, who has performed with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States and his native China. He is increasingly well known around the world for his concert performances, television appearances, albums and soundtracks. Lang has done much to encourage children and young musicians to take an interest in classical music, especially through the international foundation he launched in New York in 2008. Lang Lang, which means "brilliance of the sky", was born in Shenyang, China. His father Lang Guoren (郎国任) is also a musician, who specializes in the erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.At the age of two, Lang watched the Tom and Jerry episode The Cat Concerto which features the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt. According to Lang, this first contact with Western music is what motivated him to learn piano.[2][3] He began lessons with Professor Zhu Ya-Fen at age three. At the age of five, he won first place at the Shenyang Piano Competition and performed his first public recital. When Lang was nine years old, he was near his audition for Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music, and, having difficulties with his lessons, was expelled from his piano tutor's studio for lack of talent.The music teacher at his state school noticed Lang's sadness, and decided to comfort him by playing a record of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K. 330; she asked him to play along with the second movement. This reminded Lang of his love of the instrument. "Playing the K. 330 brought me hope again," he recalled. Lang was later admitted into the conservatory where he studied under Professor Zhao Ping-Guo.In 1993, he won the Xing Hai Cup Piano Competition in Beijing and, in 1994, was awarded first prize for outstanding artistic performance at the fourth International Competition for Young Pianists in Ettlingen, Germany.In 1995, at 13 years of age, he played the Op. 10 and Op. 25 études by Chopin at the Beijing Concert Hall and, the same year, won first place at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Japan,playing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert broadcast by NHK Television. When 14, he was a featured soloist at the China National Symphony's inaugural concert, which was broadcast by China Central Television and attended by President Jiang Zemin. The following year he began studies with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Lang has given sold out recitals and concerts in many major cities and is the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the top American orchestras.A Chicago Tribune music critic called him "the biggest, most exciting young keyboard talent I have encountered in many a year of attending piano recitals".Lang has garnered praise from musicians and critics around the world – the conductor Jahja Ling remarked, "Lang Lang is special because of his total mastery of the piano... He has the flair and great communicative power."National Public Radio's Morning Edition remarked that "Lang Lang has conquered the classical world with dazzling technique and charisma."It is often noted that Lang successfully straddles two worlds – classical prodigy and rock-like "superstar", a phenomenon summed up by The Times journalist Emma Pomfret, who wrote, "I can think of no other classical artist who has achieved Lang Lang's broad appeal without dumbing down." Lang's performances have also been criticized. His performance style has been referred to as having "soggy rhythms and heavy phrasing,"and as being "truly boring", "just bad" and "unendurable".Critics who feel that his playing is vulgar and lacks sensitivity have given him the nickname "Bang Bang".Pianist Earl Wild called him "the J. Lo of the piano."Others have described him as immature, though praised his ability to "conquer crowds with youthful bravado".Conversely, the same style has led his performance to be described as one of "blazing speed and thunderous power" with "daredevil tendencies" and "extremes of dynamics and rhythm."[19] However, his growth in recent years has also been noted in The New Yorker which reported: "The ebullient Lang Lang is maturing as an artist."In April 2009, when Time Magazine included Lang Lang in its list of the 100 most influential people, fellow musician Herbie Hancock described his playing as "so sensitive and so deeply human", commenting: "You hear him play, and he never ceases to touch your heart." Christopher McDougall of Esquire argues "[Lang's] interpretations aren't just expressions of feeling but the feelings themselves."Stephen Brookes of The Washington Post states Lang's "kinetic display" has also been "fun to watch", because "underneath the gymnastics, there's clearly some serious musical thinking going on." In 2001, after a sold-out Carnegie Hall debut with Yuri Temirkanov, he 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. The same year, he made an acclaimed BBC Proms debut, prompting a music critic of the British newspaper The Times to write, "Lang Lang took a sold-out Royal Albert Hall by storm... This could well be history in the making".[22] In 2003, he returned to the BBC Proms for the First Night concert with Leonard Slatkin. After his recital debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berliner Zeitung wrote: "Lang Lang is a superb musical performer whose artistic touch is always in service of the music". Lang is a featured soloist on the Golden Globe winning score of The Painted Veil and can be heard on the soundtrack of The Banquet. He has recorded for the Deutsche Grammophon and Telarc labels.. His album of the first and fourth Beethoven piano concertos with the Orchestre de Paris and Christoph Eschenbach debuted at #1 on the Classical Billboard Chart. In 2008, he was the pianist on Mike Oldfield's 2008 album Music of the Spheres.In 2010, he signed with Sony for a reported $3 million. In December 2008, Lang partnered with Google and YouTube in the project YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Lang has also recorded piano works for the video game Gran Turismo 5's soundtrack, mostly under the "Classical" subgenre.This included versions of Danny Boy, Beethoven's 8th Piano Sonata, and one of the game's intro pieces, the third movement from Prokofiev's 7th Piano Sonata. Finally, he has performed for numerous international dignitaries including the former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, President Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, President Hu Jintao of China, President Horst Köhler of Germany, Prince Charles, as well as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Source : Wikipedia
2011: Liszt my piano hero (Sony)
2010: Gran turismo 5 (SMI)
2010: Lang Lang live in Vienna (SMI)
2007: Dragon songs (UMI)
2006: Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2; Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini; Prelude Op.23 (UMI)
2003: Tchaikovsky / Mendelssohn: First Piano Concertos (UMI)
2002: Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3, Scriabin Etudes (Telarc)
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