Lang Lang and His Piano Story

As the year is quickly approaching its end, it’s about time to look back at what it brought us and what footprint it will leave for the next years to come. It’s always curious to watch how new talents are born and developed as you realize that that’s one of the magic parts of the humanity – the process art is transferred from one generation to another.

A lot has happened in music this year and there’s no easy way to enumerate all the happenings or to draw a certain conclusion to it. So I gave up this idea and instead decided to focus on some outstanding gifted people who made music and world a better place this year, in a way. Let me finish this year’s blogging with a post about a very talented pianist Lang Lang.

The funny thing is that most of the great-to-be musicians had been  professionally rejected at some point in their careers. And only those who had hope and true devotion to their passion managed to overcome the rejection and become what they wanted to be. Lang Lang admits to have been inspired for playing piano by Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 that he saw in the popular Disney cartoon “Tom & Jerry”. But the aspiring kid was told that he lacked talent and was expelled from a piano studio. Lang Lang didn’t give up though, and continued on his way. By the age of 13, he won a few competitions and could already play most advanced pieces by classical composers. And the adventure began.

His career proceeded in Berlin and Vienna Philarmonic, he was featured in such magazines as The Times, The New Yorker, Gramaphone, Esquire, Vogue, People. By now, Lang Lang has performed at all possible honorable events, including BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, Philadelphia Orchestra 100th Anniversary, The YouTube Symphony, White House State Dinner, numerous dignitaries with world’s leading presidents, Nobel Prize ceremonies, 2008 Summer Olympics, Grammy Awards and many more.

Lang Lang travelled the whole world with his music and is said to have a very powerful charisma. He is one of those who easily promote classical music by just performing it in a very charming manner. This year became a real milestone for the musician – Ban Ki-moon announced him a United Nations Messenger of Peace. This role, according to Lang Lang himself, is way more important and noble than just being a first-class performer.