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Lang Lang

Lang Lang is a leading figure in classical music today – as a pianist, educator and philanthropist he has become one of the world’s most influential and committed ambassadors for the arts in the 21st century. Equally happy playing for billions of viewers at the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing or just for a few hundred children in the public schools, he is a master of communicating through music.

Heralded by the New York Times as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet”, Lang Lang plays sold-out concerts all over the world. He has formed ongoing collaborations with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Barenboim and Christoph Eschenbach and performs with all the world’s top orchestras. Lang Lang is known for thinking outside the box and frequently steps into different musical worlds. His performances at the GRAMMY Awards with Metallica, Pharrell Williams or jazz legend Herbie Hancock were watched by millions of viewers.

For about a decade Lang Lang has contributed to musical education worldwide. In 2008 he founded the Lang Lang International Music Foundation aimed at cultivating tomorrow’s top pianists, championing music education at the forefront of technology, and building a young audience through live music experiences. In 2013 Lang Lang was designated by the Secretary General of the United Nations as a Messenger of Peace focusing on global education.

Lang Lang started playing the piano aged three, and gave his first public recital before the age of five. He entered Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory aged nine, and won First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians at 13. He subsequently went to Philadelphia to study with legendary pianist Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music. He was seventeen when his big break came, substituting for André Watts at the Gala of the Century, playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach: he became an overnight sensation and the invitations started to pour in.

Lang Lang’s boundless drive to attract new audiences to classical music has brought him tremendous recognition: he was presented with the 2010 Crystal Award in Davos and was picked as one of the 250 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum. He is also the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music and New York University. In December 2011 he was honoured with the highest prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and received the highest civilian honours in Germany (Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) and France (Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters).

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Album Review

Lang Lang: Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations Deluxe Edition

Read "Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations Deluxe Edition" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


An early biography of composer J.S. Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forke tells the story of how the famous variations known as Goldberg Variations came to be. Bach received a commission from Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk, the insomniac Russian ambassador to the Kingdom of Saxony to compose a set of variations that would help him ward off his insomnia. For this task, Bach was allegedly awarded a golden goblet filled with 100 Louis d'ors (French coins). During the sleepless nights, ...

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Bailey's Bundles

Lang Lang - Bach: Goldberg Variations

Read "Lang Lang - Bach: Goldberg Variations" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Chinese pianist Lang Lang went from being just one more fresh-faced and precocious teenaged phenomenon twenty years ago with his debut recording on Telarc, Lang Lang (2001), featuring the heady combination of Haydn, Rachmaninov, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky, to the leading Deutsche Grammophon firebrand releasing his first recording of a major, integrated, and complete composition, Bach's Goldberg Variations. This is not to say that Lang Lang has not previously made serious recordings, but those individual recordings lack an integrated thoroughness of ...

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Music Industry

Lang Lang Signs Exclusive Contract with Sony Music Entertainment

Lang Lang Signs Exclusive Contract with Sony Music Entertainment

Source: Michael Ricci

Sony Music Entertainment is delighted to announce a comprehensive long-term music and media agreement with internationally celebrated pianist Lang Lang. Lang Lang's first album on Sony Classical will feature a live recording of Lang Lang's upcoming recital at Vienna's legendary Musikverein. The performance will also be made available in high definition video on the Blu-ray format. This deal expands Sony's existing relationship with the artist whereby Lang Lang serves as a worldwide brand ambassador to Sony Group. In addition to ...

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Performance / Tour

Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock at the Hollywood Bowl

Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock at the Hollywood Bowl

Source: Michael Ricci

A year ago, Lang Lang fit right in as one of the stars of the historically gaudy opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Beijing. Estimates of television viewers worldwide have ranged from 1 billion to 4 billion, obviously some kind of record.

Friday, in the first of a two-night stint, Lang Lang appeared at the 17,376-seat Hollywood Bowl, which was about half-filled. Still, the stellar Chinese pianist has moved up in the world.

Langs fans were no doubt in ...

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Performance / Tour

Herbie Hancock & Lang Lang at Hollywood Bowl

Herbie Hancock & Lang Lang at Hollywood Bowl

Source: Michael Ricci

Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang Duo Debut at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic

From vastly different musical worlds, two undisputed titans of the keyboard Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang will meet on the Hollywood Bowl stage for a night of explosive pianistic pyrotechnics not to be missed!

Hollywood Bowl 2301 North Highland Avenue Hollywood, CA 90068 323.850.2000

Performances: Friday, August 7, 2009, 8:30 PM Saturday, August 8, ...

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Interview

Can Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang Smash Musical Barriers?

Can Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang Smash Musical Barriers?

Source: Michael Ricci

The walls separating jazz, classical and pop music have been weakening for years, but they're about to be dealt another blow. For when a revered jazz musician partners with a star of classical music in an openly populist program, the ghetto-izing of our musical culture faces another setback. That's precisely what jazz icon Herbie Hancock and classical phenomena Lang Lang had in mind when they conceived their joint world tour, making its American premiere Tuesday night at the Ravinia Festival ...

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Performance / Tour

Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang Make Duo Debut at the Hollywood Bowl

Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang Make Duo Debut at the Hollywood Bowl

Source: Michael Ricci

Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang Duo Debut at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Friday, August 7 AND Saturday, August 8, 2009, AT 8:30 PM

Media Sponsor (Friday): Hollywood and Highland Center Media Sponsor (Saturday): KCET

On a tour inspired by their memorable performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards, Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang make their Hollywood Bowl debut appearance as a duo on August 7 & 8, at 8:30pm. The two pianists will be playing ...

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Performance / Tour

Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang to Perform with Philadelphia Orchestra at Mann Center

Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang to Perform with Philadelphia Orchestra at Mann Center

Source: Michael Ricci

On July 30, at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, The Philadelphia Orchestra will be joined by two very exciting guests; Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang, whose artistic partnership was inspired by their 2007 Grammy performance. Led by conductor John Axelrod, the Orchestra will perform Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, Vaughn Williams’ Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Bernstein’s “Mambo” from West Side Story and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, for two pianos and orchestra. In addition, Mr. Hancock and Lang Lang ...

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Performance / Tour

Lang Lang Leads a Course in Contemporary China

Lang Lang Leads a Course in Contemporary China

Source: Michael Ricci

The pianist, Lang Lang headlines a Hollywood Bowl program displaying the nation's musical ability.

China, the sleeping giant of classical music, is slowly stirring. We don't yet know how or when, but a huge country's huge appetite for Western music will inevitably have a huge effect. The eyes, ears and corporate checkbooks of the West increasingly angle East. The Olympic Games next month will include a grandly scaled arts festival headed by a French-trained vanguard classical composer, Chen Qigang. China's ...

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