Lang Lang was born on June 14, 1982 in China. He began piano lessons at age three and performed his first public recital at age five, when he won first place in the Shenyang Piano Competition, the first of many competitions he would win.

When Lang was 15, his father took him to America, where he began studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In a couple of years, he took the classical music scene by storm with his exuberant, highly emotional performance style. If you watch his facial expressions, his enjoyment of his own playing seems almost obscene. And maybe rightly so. His phrasing is sumptuous, his technique unassailable.

The BBC did a documentary on Lang Lang’s life:

Lang Lang is also committed to teaching. I love how he interacts with young Ricky Kam:

You can even watch a series of short lessons Lang Lang has posted on YouTube.

Photo credit: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 Davos (cropped) used under World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 Davos (cropped) Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license