Lang Lang: Mozart Meets MTV

Mr. Lang wearing the Adidas sneakers bearing his name

This is the 20th and last in a series of interviews with the next-generation of classical musicians. ― ED.

The 1981 Academy Award-winning film ``From Mao to Mozart'' documented the Western classical music scene in China as it emerged from the Cultural Revolution. The last 15 minutes of the movie showed an earnest 10-year-old playing the cello before Isaac Stern. This was none other than esteemed cellist Jian Wang.

Now a generation later, China is becoming a major market for almost everything, and it seems classical musicians are one of its hottest exports. If Wang represented a changing China, here are the faces of ``new'' China, pianist Lang Lang and violinist Chen Xi.

Lang Lang: Mozart Meets MTV

At 26, Lang Lang already has a ``best of'' album, and recently performed before 5 billion viewers at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

It was ``unbelievable,'' he said about the opening ceremony in an email interview with The Korea Times. ``My heart is still pumping fast when I think about it. It was a miracle opening night, and representing the new generation of China this way was a really big honor.''

But Lang is more than just a Chinese star pianist. He's been like the big bang of the international classical music scene ― the Mozart of the MTV generation ― with maestros giving him the highest praise, Netizens not getting enough of him on YouTube and Adidas naming a sneaker after him.

``I can't describe him as a pianist, because you will only hear in my sentence the jealousy that I and all his colleagues feel,'' Daniel Barenboim said once. ``I'm sure he didn't show you, but you know, he has 11 fingers. He plays the piano like a cat with 11 fingers.''

Lang said music was the most natural thing for him: ``The piano happened to be the instrument I loved the most from the beginning. I think this is what you call instinct.'' The Shenyang native began playing at age three and moved to Beijing to enter the country's most prestigious conservatory ― bidding farewell to his mother to live in an unheated apartment. He had to hit the piano keys to keep warm and endure his austere father who would tell him to kill himself when he didn't measure up to expectations. This story, of course, is already familiar, and has inspired his two memoirs in English, ``Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story'' and ``Lang Lang: Playing With Flying Keys.''

He said he wanted to inspire people through his books. ``I think that there are many things in the world you can dream of, but you are always afraid that it's a dream. I try to inspire people that everything is possible, and if you believe, you will eventually get it.''But the pianist's ultimate method of communication is, naturally, music. ``It's like you are talking to people or to yourself,'' he said. ``The amazing thing is, it is through that conversation between you and the music, between the composers' creation and your recreation, that you learn a new life… All of those things connect to your soul and help you to cross the barriers. Music is a very powerful art.''

He said he wants to paint different ``music colors'' and moods in each piece. ``Sometimes I like to start with lighter colors and go really light or go in the opposite direction,'' he said. He will be showcasing one of his favorites, Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2, with the La Scala Philharmonic led by maestro Chung Myung-whun in Seoul, Sept. 10.

Read about violinist Chen Xi, Mr. Lang's childhood friend.