Schenectady, N.Y. (Feb. 18, 2002) – Nineteen-year-old pianist Lang Lang has burst upon the international musical scene with unparalleled excitement and acclaim. He will perform in his Capital District debut at Union College's Memorial Chapel on Feb. 28 at 8 p.m.
The performance will feature Haydn's Sonata in E; Mendelssohn's Fantasy; Chopin's 2 Nocturnes; Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy; and Liszt's Paganini Etudes. Lang Lang's performance
at Union College will be included in a documentary of his life currently being
filmed by the French film company, ARTE.
Hailed by The Chicago Tribune as the biggest, most exciting keyboard talent encountered in many years, and already performing with the world's leading orchestras, Lang Lang has shown himself to be an artist of significant maturity and depth. When he made his sold-out Carnegie Hall debut in April 2001 with the Baltimore Symphony under Yuri Temirkanov, The New York Times called him “stunning.” In August 2001 he made his London
debut at the BBC Proms performing Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3 with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, conducted by Temirkanov. The Times of London wrote: “Lang Lang took a sold-out Albert Hall by storm … This could well be history in the making.”
Born in Shen Yang, China, Lang Lang began his piano studies at the age of three with Professor Zhu Ya-Fen from the Shen Yang Conservatory of Music. At the age of nine he entered the Central Music Conservatory in Beijing, where he studied with Professor Zhao Ping-Guo. Excelling in all aspects of his classes, he was accepted in 1997 into the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he currently studies with Gary Graffman, the Director of the Institute.
In the 2001/02 season Lang Lang will make his debuts with the New York
Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony. He will tour Europe with the NDR
Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach, and
Asia with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Temirkanov. In December 2001 he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch in their final subscription concerts at the Academy of Music. The season also includes orchestral engagements with the Atlanta, Houston and Seattle symphonies, the London Philharmonic with Eschenbach and the NHK Symphony of Japan with Charles Dutoit, as well as debut recitals at the Kennedy
Center's Terrace Theatre in Washington, D.C., Wigmore Hall in London and the
Louvre in Paris.
This past June Lang Lang toured to Beijing with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Sawallisch on the Orchestra's 100th Anniversary Asian tour, performing to an
audience of 8,000 at the Great Hall of the People. Last season he performed with the San Francisco, St. Louis and Danish National Radio symphonies and the Hallé Orchestra. He gave recitals in Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Los Angeles, Munich, St. Petersburg (Russia), Vancouver and Zurich's Tonhalle.
In September 1996 Lang Lang was invited to perform as one of the soloists at the
inaugural concert of the China National Symphony, which President Jiang Ze Min
attended as guest of honor. In 1996 at the age of 13, Lang Lang gave solo recitals both at New York's Steinway Hall and Beijing's Concert Hall where
he performed the complete Chopin 24 etudes.
Lang Lang has won numerous awards at international competitions beginning at the age of five, when he won first prize in the Shen Yang Piano Competition after which he gave his first public recital. He won first prize in the Fifth Xing Hai Cup Piano Competition in Beijing, first prize and outstanding artistic performance in the Fourth International Young Pianists Competition in Germany and first prize at the Second Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition held in 1995 in Japan.
Lang Lang is an exclusive Steinway
artist and records exclusively for Telarc Records. His first album is a
recital recorded live at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall.
His second album, which will be released in the spring of 2002, features
Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto recorded live during the London Proms at Royal
Albert Hall.Further information can be found at www.LangLang.com.
Note: Any articles, interviews or reviews should refer to Lang Lang as
“Lang Lang” and not “Lang” or “Mr. Lang.” “Lang Lang” is the proper usage of his name.
Tickets at $20 ($8 for students) are available in advance at the Office of Communications, Union College (518) 388-6131 and at the door at 7 p.m. For more information, call 372-3651.
The Union College Concert Series is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; additional support comes from the Times Union Newspapers. Memorial Chapel is located near the center of the Union College campus. Parking is available on campus and nearby side streets.