Lang Lang (b. 1982, Shenyang, China) began piano at age three and trained at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music before moving to the United States in 1997 to study with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music. His 2001 Carnegie Hall debut, stepping in on short notice with conductor Yuri Temirkanov, launched an international career, and he became the first Chinese pianist engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and many leading American orchestras. He has performed with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Barenboim, and Zubin Mehta, and records for Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Classical. He performed at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics before an estimated global audience in the billions, and founded the Lang Lang International Music Foundation in 2008 to support young musicians.

Lang Lang is widely credited with dramatically expanding classical music’s global, youth, and Asian audiences through his showmanship, crossover projects, and education advocacy, becoming one of the most commercially successful classical pianists of his generation.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lang_Lang