Lang Lang /

Lang Lang (Chinese: 郎朗; pinyin: Láng Lǎng), born June 14, 1982, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, is a Chinese concert pianist, currently residing in New York. He is well known in Europe and North America for his concert appearances. Lang Lang was born in Shenyang, China, and has Manchu ancestry. Lang Lang's father Lang Guoren (郎国任) is also a famous musician who specializes in the Chinese instrument erhu. At the age of two, Lang Lang watched the Tom and Jerry episode The Cat Concerto which features the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt. According to Lang Lang, this first contact with Western music is what motivated him to learn piano. He began lessons with Professor Zhu Ya-Fen at age three. At the age of five, he won first place at the Shenyang Piano Competition and performed his first public recital. When Lang Lang was nine years old, he was near his audition for Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music, and, having difficulties with his lessons, was expelled from his piano tutor's studio for lack of talent.