Biography
One of the most impactful artists of our time, Lang Lang is a visionary pianist celebrated on the world’s great stages, an impassioned educator and a tireless advocate for the arts. Few musicians communicate with such immediacy and reach: whether he is playing for billions at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, appearing at the 2020 Dubai EXPO or the 2024 reopening of Notre-Dame in Paris – or sharing music with children in a school classroom – he brings the same sense of joy, purpose and artistry to every performance.
Lang Lang gives sold-out concerts all over the world. He has formed ongoing collaborations with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Barenboim and Andris Nelsons, and performs with all the world’s top orchestras. He frequently steps into different musical realms, bringing classical music to new and diverse audiences – recently, for example, blending his musicianship with the magic of Disney. Millions of viewers watched his performances with Metallica, Pharrell Williams and Herbie Hancock at the GRAMMY® Awards, and with Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and John Legend at the One World: Together at Home concert in 2020, and he has also appeared with other global icons including Ed Sheeran, Rose from BLACKPINK, J Balvin and Jay Chou.
He has made a major contribution to music education worldwide through the Lang Lang International Music Foundation (LLIMF), the charitable organisation he founded in 2008. The LLIMF aims to support and motivate young musicians and inspire young audiences through live music, in the belief that “all children should have access to music and music education, regardless of their background or circumstances”. Its flagship programme, “Keys of Inspiration”, brings group piano lessons into state schools – especially in under-served communities – in the US, the UK and China, using music to foster creativity, discipline and self-confidence.
In March 2025 the LLIMF announced plans to take its “She’s a Star” programme, launched six months earlier at a girls’ school in London, into more schools around the world, with the aim of empowering young women to establish careers and achieve success in the creative industries. A month later, the Foundation launched another new global initiative, “Music Heals”, its objective to support children facing such challenges as serious illness or bereavement through music’s power to uplift and connect.
Lang Lang has helped bring piano playing to an even wider audience in the UK through his role as a judge on the first two series of Channel 4’s hit show The Piano, underlining his mission to make music a part of day-to-day life for everyone. Other recent highlights include the honour of receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; his world premiere performance and recording of the newly unearthed Waltz in A minor “Found in New York”, believed to have been composed by Chopin; and his performance of Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No.2 as part of the celebrations surrounding the reopening of Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral.
A Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and a UN Messenger of Peace, Lang Lang has been ranked by Time magazine among the world’s 100 most influential people.
In 2017, having re-signed with Deutsche Grammophon, he decided to record a selection of his favourite pieces with the aim of inspiring piano students of all ages. The resulting album, Piano Book, became the best-selling classical recording of 2019 across the globe. Then, in 2020, Lang Lang recorded two contrasting versions of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, one captured live at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, the other set down in studio conditions a few weeks later. The album was released in September that year, with an extended version issued in February 2021.
His next project, The Disney Book, presented brand-new arrangements of hits from favourite Disney films. Released in September 2022, with an extended edition following a year later, it featured guest performances from such global stars as Andrea Bocelli, Sebastián Yatra and Jon Batiste. Lang Lang – Saint-Saëns came out in March 2024, offering a mix of solo works and orchestral collaborations with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Andris Nelsons. The album went on to win two OPUS KLASSIKs: a 2024 Instrumentalist of the Year award and the 2025 Bestseller of the Year award.
His latest album is a follow-up to the hugely popular Piano Book, presenting another collection of “masterpieces in miniature”, from essential classics to contemporary works, and music from the film and gaming worlds. Piano Book 2 is set for release on 17 October 2025.
The pianist’s wide-ranging discography also includes concertos by Bartók, Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky; the solo recital album Live at Carnegie Hall; Memory; Dragon Songs; The Chopin Album; Liszt – My Piano Hero; chamber works by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff; and original soundtrack scores by Tan Dun and Alexandre Desplat.
Lang Lang started playing the piano at the age of three and gave his first public recital before turning five. At nine he entered Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory, and at thirteen he won First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. He subsequently went to Philadelphia to study with legendary pianist Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music. He was seventeen when his big break came, substituting for André Watts at the Gala of the Century and playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach: he became an overnight sensation, and the invitations started to pour in.
His boundless drive to attract new audiences to classical music has brought him tremendous recognition. As well as having been presented with the 2010 Crystal Award in Davos and named as one of the 250 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum, he has also received several honorary doctorates, notably from the Royal College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music and New York University.
GRAMMY®-nominated, he is also the recipient of a Classic Brit award and several ECHO/OPUS KLASSIK awards, and in 2019 became the first Chinese musician ever to be presented with a prestigious honorary Victoire de la Musique Classique.
He has been awarded the highest prize given by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, and the highest civilian honours in Germany (Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) and France (Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters). In 2016, he was invited to the Vatican to perform for Pope Francis, and he has played before numerous other international dignitaries, including four US presidents and monarchs from many nations.
8/2025