Editing Lang Lang (section)

== Early life and education ==

Lang Lang was born in [[Shenyang]], China, in 1982 to a family of the [[Manchu people|Manchu]] [[Niohuru]] clan. His father Lang Guoren is a musician, playing the [[erhu]].<ref>[http://www.iexaminer.org/arts/avante-garde-pianist/ Na Young Kwon, "An Avante Garde Pianist: A musical genius finds inspiration from the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304115101/http://www.iexaminer.org/arts/avante-garde-pianist/ |date=4 March 2012 }}, ''International Examiner''. Retrieved 13 September 2011.</ref> Both his father and mother, also a musician, were displaced to work on rice farms in the country during the [[Cultural Revolution]], before Lang was born.<ref name="Grdn2016">{{cite news |last1=Hind |first1=John |title=Lang Lang: 'Beethoven was a sausage lover'|type=interview|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/16/lang-lang-pianist-beethoven-sausage-lover-childhood-practice-mum-home-cooking |access-date=23 January 2023 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=16 October 2016}}</ref>

The ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' episode ''[[The Cat Concerto]]'', which features [[Franz Liszt]]'s [[Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2]]., motivated two-year-old Lang to learn the piano.<ref>{{cite episode|title=L ang Lang's Journey to Beethoven|series= Morning Edition|series-link= Morning Edition|network= [[National Public Radio]]|airdate= 8 May 2007|access-date= 30 September 2016|url= https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10060309}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Lang|first=Lang|author2=David Ritz|title=Journey of a Thousand Miles|pages=Spiegel & Graul|chapter=Tom and Gerry<!-- "Gerry"? -->}}</ref> He started lessons with Zhu Yafen at age three, won first place at the Shenyang Piano Competition and performed his first public recital when he was five.<ref name="amg">Stevenson, Joseph.[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q101138/biography|pure_url=yes}} Lang Lang biography]. [[AllMusic]]</ref>

When Lang was nine, he was expelled from his piano tutor's studio for "lack of talent".<ref name="looks back">"[https://books.google.com/books?id=7BQEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Lang%20Lang%20looks%20back%22%20Billboard&pg=PA46 Lang Lang looks back]".''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''; 18 February 2006</ref><ref name="Grdn2016"/> Lang has stated that upon learning of this, his father flew into a rage and told Lang that he "shouldn't live any more", ordering him to jump off the balcony of their 11th floor family apartment.<ref>{{cite news|author=Elizabeth Grice|url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/i-think-my-father-just-went-nuts-superstar-pianist-lang-lang-on-being-pushed-by-his-ambitious-father-and-his-difficult-road-to-success/37938578.html|title='I think my father just went nuts' – superstar pianist Lang Lang on being pushed by his ambitious father and his difficult road to success|newspaper=[[Irish Independent]]|date=23 March 2019|access-date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref name="greenstreet">{{cite news|author=Rosanna Greenstreet |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/may/14/lang-lang-piano-china-father |title=Lang Lang: 'I'd play the piano at 5am'|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=23 May 2017}}</ref> Another music teacher at his state school noticed Lang and asked him to play the second movement of Mozart's [[Piano Sonata No. 10 (Mozart)|Piano Sonata No. 10]], which reminded Lang of his love for the instrument.<ref name="looks back" /> Lang later studied under Zhao Ping-Guo at Beijing's [[Central Conservatory of Music]].<ref>[http://www.chinesebiographies.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Lang%20Lang%20Chapter%205%20English%20Translation.pdf "Lang Lang: Chapter 5: First Step Towards the World Stage"]{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Chinese Biographies, ''Cheng & Tsui''. Retrieved 11 September 2011.</ref>

Lang won the Xinghai National Piano Competition in Beijing in 1993 and first prize for outstanding artistic performance at the International Competition for Young Pianists in Ettlingen, Germany, in 1994.<ref name="amg" /> In 1995, Lang played the [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]] études at the [[Beijing Concert Hall]], won the [[International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians]] in Japan,<ref name="amg" /> and performed as soloist with the [[Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra]].<ref name="telarc">{{Cite web |date=2024-02-08 |title=Lang Lang: The Biography |url=https://pianoers.com/lang-lang-the-biography/ |access-date=2024-02-19 |website=Pianoers.com |language=en}}</ref> Fourteen-year-old Lang was a featured soloist for the [[China National Symphony Orchestra|China National Symphony]]'s inaugural concert in September 1996, then Chinese president [[Jiang Zemin]] met Lang after this performance.

Lang and his father moved to the United States in 1997, so Lang could pursue studies with [[Gary Graffman]] at the [[Curtis Institute of Music]] in [[Philadelphia]].<ref>[http://www.chinesebiographies.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Lang%20Lang%20Chapter%206%20English%20Translation.pdf "Lang Lang: Chapter 6: A Miracle in Musical History"]{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Chinese Biographies, ''Cheng & Tsui''. Retrieved 11 September 2011.</ref><ref name="greenstreet" />