March 13, 2008
FORT WORTH, TEXAS, March 12, 2008--Cliburn at the Bass will
present Lang Lang, one of today's most sensational young pianists,
on Monday, March 31, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. in Bass Performance
Hall.
Twenty-five-year-old Lang Lang is the closest thing to a
superstar that classical music has produced in the last decade. His
dazzling technique and extraordinary ability to connect with
audiences on a deeply personal level have made him one of the most
exciting and sought-after pianists of our time.
Lang Lang has performed for heads of state and played to
sold-out audiences in every major cultural capital of the world.
His recordings have reached the top of both classical and pop music
charts around the globe. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno, Good Morning America, and 60 Minutes, and has been
featured in such worldwide magazines as Vogue, GQ, Die Welt,
Reader's Digest, and People. He was also the first Chinese artist
to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental
Soloist.
His program at the Bass features works by Mozart, Schumann,
Granados, Liszt, a Wagner-Liszt transcription, and six traditional
Chinese works.
Prior to the concert, there will be a Cliburn Conversations
presentation hosted by Dr. Carol Reynolds at 6:30 p.m. in the Green
Room of Bass Performance Hall. Cliburn Conversations is free to all
ticket holders and is designed to provide insightful information
about the evening's program.
Cliburn at the Bass is part of the 2007-2008 Cliburn Concerts
series. Named the "foremost classical performance series in the
Southwest" by the Dallas Morning News, Cliburn Concerts features
the world's leading recitalists, ensembles, and rising stars. The
series is presented in three venues: Bass Performance Hall, the
Kimbell Art Museum, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
TICKETS AND INFORMATION: Single tickets to
Cliburn Concerts performances range from $15 to $90. Tickets are
available online or by calling 817.335.9000. More information is
available at www.cliburn.org.
ExxonMobil is the Principal Corporate Sponsor of the Van Cliburn
Foundation. American Airlines, Bank of America, City of Fort Worth,
Eastman Kodak Company, JPMorgan Chase, Star- Telegram, Steinway
& Sons, and XTO Energy Inc. are Official Corporate Sponsors,
and Clear Channel Communications and RadioShack are the Cliburn's
Corporate Sponsors. Official Sponsors are the Arts Council of Fort
Worth and Tarrant County, The Burnett Foundation, Once Upon a
Time..., and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Star-Telegram is the
principal media partner and WRR 101.1 FM is the official radio
station of Cliburn Concerts.
LANG LANG
Twenty-five-year-old Lang Lang has played to sold-out audiences
in every major cultural capital in the world. The first Chinese
pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna
Philharmonic, he has appeared with the most prominent American
orchestras and has collaborated with the most renowned conductors,
including Maestros Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Chailly, Sir Colin Davis,
Dutoit, Eschenbach, Gergiev, Jansons, Levine, Mehta, Maazel,
Welser-Möst, Muti, Nagano, Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Salonen,
Slatkin, Temirkanov, and Tilson-Thomas.
In the summer of 2007, Lang Lang performed open-air concerts
before tens of thousands of people at Berlin's famous Waldbühne
with Maestro Barenboim, and then at the Berlin Staatskapelle. At
the invitation of H.R.H. Prince Charles, Lang Lang performed a
piano concerto commissioned in memory of the Queen Mother, and
recently appeared as part of Great Britain's Royal Variety Show,
which was attended by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and broadcast
to thirteen million people. In the fall, he performed ten piano
concerti to mark the tenth anniversary of the Beijing International
Festival (as well as the twentieth anniversary of his first stage
appearance), and performed at the opening concert for the Rome Film
Festival. Most recently, Lang Lang was the guest soloist at the
Nobel Prize Concert held in Stockholm in December 2007, which was
attended by Nobel laureates and members of the royal family.
Performance highlights for 2008 include the New Year's Eve
opening of the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing
with Seiji Ozawa; a concert with the Vienna Philharmonic during the
closing of the Euro Cup in front of the Schönbrunn Palace; and an
open-air tour with concerts in New York's Central Park, the
Hollywood Bowl, Chicago's Ravinia Festival, Dresden, and Hamburg.
He participated in a special concert with Cecilia Bartoli and Maxim
Vengerov in March honoring Maria Malibran, and is currently on a
twelve-city U.S. recital tour that includes a concert at Carnegie
Hall as part of its Great Artists Series. Lang Lang will also
perform this year with the China Philharmonic on a world tour of
Olympic cities, and will perform a solo recital at the London
Proms.
Lang Lang began playing piano at the age of three, and then won
the Shenyang competition and gave his first public recital at the
age of five. When he was nine he entered Beijing's Central Music
Conservatory. He later went on to win first prize at the
Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition. At
seventeen, Lang Lang's break into stardom came when he was called
for a dramatic last minute substitution at the "Gala of the
Century," where he played Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 with the
Chicago Symphony. He has appeared twice on The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno, and also on Good Morning America and 60 Minutes. He has
been featured on major television networks and in such worldwide
magazines as Vogue, GQ, Die Welt, Reader's Digest, and People.
Lang Lang has performed for global leaders around the world,
including Prince Albert II of Monaco, the former Secretary- General
of the United Nations Kofi Annan, President George H. W. Bush, Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, President Hu Jin-Tao of China,
President Horst Koehler of Germany, President Abdul Kalam of India,
H.R.H. Prince Charles, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
In 2004, he was appointed International Goodwill Ambassador to
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). As a result of Lang
Lang's enormous popularity with children, Steinway created the
"Lang Lang Steinway," reproduced in five different models for the
early musical education of children. This is the first time in its
150-year history that Steinway has used an artist's name on a
piano. Additionally, the Lang Lang International Music Foundation
was established with the goal of expanding young audiences and
inspiring the next generation of musicians through its various
outreach programs. He currently serves on the Weill Music Institute
Advisory Committee as part of Carnegie Hall's educational program
and is the youngest member of Carnegie Hall's Artistic Advisory
Board. Lang Lang is proud to be the global brand ambassador for
both Audi and Montblanc, and is the chairman of the Montblanc de la
Culture Arts Patronage Award Project.
Lang Lang records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon/Universal.
His recordings have all reached the top of both classical and pop
music charts around the globe. His newest release, Beethoven's
Piano Concerti Nos. 1 and 4 with Orchestre de Paris and Maestro
Christoph Eschenbach, debuted at number one on the Billboard
Classical Chart. Recently, Lang Lang was the first Chinese artist
to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist.
He has also been named an honoree for the Recording Academy's
Presidential Merit Award. His Dragon Songs, a documentary film and
soundtrack, takes the listener on a groundbreaking journey through
Lang Lang's home country. In 2008, he will record both Chopin
concerti with the Vienna Philharmonic. Lang Lang is a featured
soloist on the Golden Globe-winning score for The Painted Veil,
composed by Alexandre Desplat, and can be heard on the soundtrack
for The Banquet, composed by Tan Dun.
Lang Lang has received honorary professorships from all the top
conservatories in China, where he gives master classes regularly.
He also offers classes at Juilliard, the Curtis Institute, and the
Hochschüle in Hannover, Germany.
For more information, visit www.langlang.com.
PROGRAM
MOZART Sonata in B-flat major, K. 333
SCHUMANN Fantasy in C major, Op. 17
TRADITIONAL Six Chinese works to be announced
GRANADOS "Los requiebros" from Goyescas
WAGNER-LISZT Tristan und Isolde: Isoldens Liebestod
LISZT Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Contact: Sevan Melikyan Dir. of P.R.
email: sevan@cliburn.org
phone: 817.738.6536
web:
