Artist Biography: Lang Lang
Lang Lang
Born in 1982 in Shenyang, China, Lang Lang began piano lessons at age three; two years later, he won the Shenyang Piano Competition and played his first public recital. At nine he entered Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory. When he was fourteen he was a featured soloist in the China National Symphony’s inaugural concert, and the following year he began studies with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. In 1999, at seventeen, Lang Lang substituted at the last minute for André Watts in the Ravinia Festival’s Gala of the Century. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in October 2000 as a Shenson Young Artist, performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto and also performing in the SFS Chamber Music Series. He returned most recently last December, when he completed a week-long residency with the SFS that included performances with the Orchestra, chamber music with SFS musicians, and a lecture-recital program for middle- and high-school music students.
Lang Lang has performed around the world, appearing at the 2007 Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm, the 2007-08 New Year’s Eve gala opening for the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and with jazz pianist Herbie Hancock at the 2008 Grammy awards. During the summer of 2009, Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock continued their collaboration with a world tour, including concerts in Europe and the US. In the 2009-10 season, Lang Lang embarks on an international tour and will be featured at the Carnegie Hall China Festival this fall.
Lang Lang records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon/Universal; his discography includes Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 4 with the Orchestre de Paris as well as appearances on the soundtrack of The Painted Veil (the score of which won a Golden Globe award) and on Tan Dun’s soundtrack for The Banquet. Lang Lang’s latest recording, with Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic, features Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2. In addition to receiving honorary professorships from several Chinese conservatories, in 2007, he earned the Recording Academy’s Presidential Merit Award, whose past recipients include Zubin Mehta and Luciano Pavarotti, and a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist. In 2008, Lang Lang was named Cultural Ambassador to China by the Recording Academy, and he has recently been chosen as an official worldwide ambassador to the 2010 Shanghai Expo.
Lang Lang’s autobiography, Journey of a Thousand Miles, was published in 2008 in eight languages, and he also released a version for younger readers entitled Playing with Flying Keys. Lang Lang serves on the boards of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award Project, and the Weill Music Institute Advisory Committee, and he is a member of the Carnegie Hall Artistic Advisory Board. In 2004, he was appointed a UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador and has been named one of the 250 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum. He recently appeared in the 2009 Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.