The pianist, Lang Lang, has been called “the hottest classical artist on the planet.”
I first sat down with him more than a decade ago for CNN, shortly after he graduated from Philadelphia’s prestigious Curtis Institute via China. It was the very first international news profile of the future star.
Back then, Lang Lang was not ready to reveal what he shared with me here, about the struggles of his journey to the top.
In this conversation, conducted backstage before a performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra, we were joined by his mom, who shares with us the painful sacrifice she made for the sake of her son’s future.
She speaks in Mandarin with such emotion that her son’s translations are barely necessary. And when she answers my question about the piece she most loves to hear her son play — and why — Lang Lang honors her answer with a memorable musical ending to this conversation.