WEBVTT - Lang Lang Plays 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.520 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:14.240 Rock Star is the wrong word by definition, but classical 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:18.560 star doesn't quite get at Long Long's place in the pantheon. 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:26.040 He's a serious pianist playing serious repertoire with a flare. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.000 Here it's a Schubert fantasy in front of a sold out, 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:38.000 crowded Carnegie Hall. Once tempted to say he's one part 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:43.519 Glenn Gould, one part Van Clyburne, but the truth is 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:49.479 he's Long Long. He and his signature Beaufon, were the 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.160 obvious choice to open the Beijing Olympics, watched by four 0:00:53.320 --> 0:01:00.400 billion people, and for President Obama to invite to play 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:07.080 at the intimate White House dinner for the President of China. 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.520 Long Long takes an obvious joy in his art and 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:17.680 his fame, but both are hard won. A musical prodigy, 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:20.840 he was the son of two talented artists forced to 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:26.080 abandon their dreams by the Cultural Revolution. Just a few 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.120 years after he won a national competition at the age 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:33.119 of five, his father abandoned everything else in his life 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:44.360 to focus on his son's talent. They moved together to Beijing. 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.680 Long Long won so many contests that he was offered 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.840 a spot by the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.240 His father moved with him to America too. All that 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:00.400 vicarious ambition took its toll on their bond, but over 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:05.560 the years it returned. We're very close. Our conversation was 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.840 taped in front of a live audience at w n 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.920 YCS Green Space. We're really much better than when I 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.080 was a nine year much better. It was not in 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.240 the same level. Yeah, we were really and it's getting 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.480 closer somehow because we are not living together. So in 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.160 a way, you know, these tents makes beauty, right, So 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.320 so that's that's how exactly happened. In his mind, he 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.560 must have a kind of a mixed feeling, the euphoria 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.640 of you having made it to the degree you've made it, 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.280 and at the same time he's not around you. I 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.080 know that if I was your dad, I'm obsessed with 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.640 my kids. And if I was like your dad and 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.000 I was instrumental and influential in helping you become what 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:48.919 you became, then all of a sudden you were like, Okay, Dad, 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:50.480 I got this, and you're gonna move out on your own. 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.760 I'd be like, wait, no. You know, if you were 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.080 my son, I want to live with you forever. So 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.680 I mean, he, um, where is to do with himself? 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.399 And I think you're not living together? He's actually uh, 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.040 he's helping me a lot in China back home, and 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:11.000 then he's also teaching a lot. He liked to helping 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.440 the next generation of musicians and uh, and he himself 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.239 was a musician. Yeah, he played the are Who the 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:21.119 Chinese valnin um so um that was his um using 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.240 some like circus bans. He was in an Air Force ban. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.760 But yeah, before I was in a circus ban. Yeah. Yeah. 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.880 But the instrument itself is very beautiful. It's like one 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:35.000 of the most charming instruments from Asia, and it's very tasteful. 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.400 It has a really beautiful taste and and it's also 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:45.240 an instrument always makes you cry somehow Yeah yeah, so 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.960 so sometimes, I mean, my father made me cry this 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:53.160 different reason. You weren't crying because he broke out what 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.880 is it called again? Are Who? Are Who? Yeah? Are Who? Yeah? 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.160 More like that. Yeah, I'll get my Chinese produced eventually, 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.560 but maybe by the time we're done. But but but 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.800 then you your country, your native country is very driven 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:12.040 by competitions and international competitions. They put a tremendous emphasis 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.400 on that. Correct, absolutely the best way to make career. 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:21.960 We're meaning the competitions and which is the truth, especially 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.120 during that time, because otherwise nobody will discover you, you know, 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.720 in a way. So we we have to go out 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:33.480 for international competitions and to win prizes. So being number one, 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.560 it's kind of became a motto in my early career. 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.919 And then how farst um after I landed here, I 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:47.440 had this teacher, great pianist, Gary Graffman, who who's also 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.520 quite different compared to the other academic professors because he 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:55.560 is so into, you know, a real career rather than 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.760 a short term being you know, a price winner. So 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:03.440 he discoursed me to do competitions and I was like, wow, 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.239 really did he say? Why? Yeah? He said, then you're 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.520 too crazy about being number one and you're not really 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.000 focused on what you should be, you know, learning the 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.599 repertoire and too he said, do you want to become 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:19.520 a great musician or you want to just win? And 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.880 I said, oh, I said, is that not the same? 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.000 I said, what was the difference? I said, if I 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:25.880 don't win a prize, how I'm going to become a 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:30.120 great musician. He said, Oh, okay, that's the wrong understanding 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:35.000 you have, and especially his wife, you know, Naomi. Every 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:38.320 time I go to library in uh In Curtis and 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.200 then uh I started looking over the competition forms like 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.960 Monk Clyburn, Chopin, Shakhovsky, and I take it out and 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.960 then I'm thinking to feel the form, right, And I 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:51.920 saw Naomi next to me, Hey, what are you doing? 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:56.240 Bad boy? H shouldn't you just working on your broms 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.640 second piano concerto rather than, you know, feeling the form? 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:03.440 Try to be crazy number one. Somehow, I was like, okay, 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.320 let me go back to when you're when you when 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:08.560 you when you're young, you won your first competition when 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:10.719 you were five? Correct, Yeah, I mean that's that's what 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.160 what I was kind of election. Yeah, I was like, 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.880 kind of a professional competition person. You know, I'm very competitive. 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:19.960 If I see you, let's let's do a commodation now 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.080 anyway I see you, Yeah, let's do it. I'm not 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.400 gonna bother you with our compo. You're the winner. Let's 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:30.480 skip to that. But but but what fascinates me is 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:35.119 the emotion and the feeling behind that kind of work. 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.479 When you're five years old, if you can recall, are 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.640 you sitting at a piano and it's pressure, and it's tense, 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:45.919 and it's like you have to pass a test because 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.440 it's a competition and you're and and there's there's a 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:50.240 kind of a tight feeling you have where you want 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:54.320 or are you enjoying yourself when you're five years old? Um. 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.000 One thing good about competition is that it's kind of 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:02.560 pushes you to play better than you're normally does because 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:06.719 you you try to play without round notes, you try 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:11.280 to be concentrate on what you do. But also, in 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.560 the same time, if you are too serious about competition, 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.480 you lose your soul in a way that you are 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.600 afraid to do something wrong. And as you know in art, 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.800 sometimes when you really do something unique, you are actually 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.000 not really on the page, you're actually doing something but 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.520 that that is a really great moment. So so in 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.000 a way, it's it's hard to say, you know, it's 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.360 hard to say, but I kind of enjoyed it because 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.800 sometimes I lose. Sometimes I win is encouraging me to 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:48.200 do better. UM, And actually I learn more than UM 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:52.119 than just playing because I see others playing and I'm like, wow, 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.120 they're good. I need to catch up, you know. So 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.960 so this is a good, good vibe. It's funny to 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.400 see you, of all people, and you watching other five 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.040 year old kid playing and you're like, damn, he's good. 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.920 I couldn't do that when I was let's have a competition, 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.120 you would be right. Now you're challenging everyone to a 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.720 duel at the piano. Now what was missing in your childhood? 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.360 What did you wish you had? More of the video games? 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:24.920 Uh more, more sports? Uh more? Free free time, free time? 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.920 Yeah yeah, yeah, but now I mean at eight thirty six, 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.240 I can have more free times you might want. So 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.160 it's in the end, it's kind of okay. Postponed it. 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.720 Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, postponed it. Yeah, but but in 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.960 a way that I wish that I may have a 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.079 little bit more more fun time, you know, to maybe 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.880 less pressure. I would say, yeah, yeah, did your dad 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:50.439 say I'm sorry that it was so tough and I'm 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.840 so off. He never apolished, so I think the best 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.720 action he was like, oh yeah, let yourself handle your stuff, 0:08:57.720 --> 0:08:59.640 and I'm not going to handle it anymore. I think 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.680 that's that's the the way that he has the management 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.560 onto you right right right, and now he's cheerless off. 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.320 My mom said, older, important concert you are going, and 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.240 then you have a nice photo. He likes to have 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:13.000 some nice photos. You know, your mother is doing a 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.320 lot of traveling with your father. So what's your mother's 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.200 answering with all the travel? Just one martini is what 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.320 her program is. She does come in handy for somethingle 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.600 if she has this natural some kind of a you know, 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.520 she's just never get tired. She's incredible. I think I 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:30.880 got some of my energy from her. Her eyes are 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.760 always like this. Yeah. But before she started traveling with me, 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.280 she always sleep really early, like already you know, I'm 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:42.440 very healthy, right. But then she now traveled with me 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:44.600 far fall a few years already, and now she's like, 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:49.000 never sleep before three, three or two at least. But 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:53.079 she looks better than before. So I think it's the 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:56.920 music therapy, you know. I think, you know, she's just everywhere, 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.240 like every time I play something, you better crumpting. What's 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.400 on your own? Mother? Uh? Is there a piece you 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.680 play that is exceptionally challenging to you? Is there one 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.560 that even you every time you play a new piece, 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:18.440 whether it's a technically easy or difficult, there's always a 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:23.160 new story to tell. And somehow it's not all about 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.559 you know, play the note anymore, you know, as growing 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:31.720 up pianist, So more about how to bring those music 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.800 to life again, um and into you know, a different interpretation. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.840 So therefore every piece is you have to focus and 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:46.320 in a very different style of course. Yeah, but I 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.240 wouldn't say this piece I just you know, kind of 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:52.280 I don't need to care much and it will come 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.480 out in a great way. No way. You have to 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:58.400 really focus and to concentrate. So that's why, like in 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:00.960 in this new album, the in a book, it's the 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.880 same thing. There are many pieces considered be pretty simple, 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:08.079 but once you start to read look into those pieces 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.480 and you're like, those are master pieces. It's not simple. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.920 Maybe technically simple, but if you want to make real, 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.040 you know, music out of it, you have to be 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.520 focused and to play everything in your mind to you know, 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.800 to make it work. Yeah. Well, there, of course is 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.000 my first uh slip up here, which is that you 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.040 brought up your book before I did, which is no, no, 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:36.480 which is a bad hosting on my part. I should 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.160 have mentioned that you have your new book out, the 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.240 piano book and the CD which I have. And one 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:46.640 thing I do, which is a silly, uh preoccupation, is 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:48.840 I go to an iTunes or any kind of a 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.400 download service and I look and see the length. So 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.760 it plays the mal or ninth fourth movement, the longest 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:00.480 and the slowest, the most tortured fourth move to the mouth. 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:05.520 And you do, Claire Dulon, you squeeze the hell out 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:13.760 of that. You really play the very long yes, luxuri um. 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.120 And I think, you know, after getting a little older, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.280 I think it's going to be even longer. And I've 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.760 joked I don't know worry. I mean, the other day 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.320 there's the one critic said, you know, from the curb duloons, Uh, 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.440 the way I played, I think long Lone places Goldberg 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.640 with a two hour and thirty minutes, and I think 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:36.360 it's a that's kind of a right thing to say. 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:38.520 I'm not trying to figure out how long I'm gonna 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.760 play that piece. Uh, but you know what, I just 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:46.040 want to enjoy the moment and I wanted to make 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:50.240 sure that I heard everything from that piece. I have 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:52.120 another question for you that, of course we have a 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.520 piano here which is just a suggestion only don't feel 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:00.040 any pressure. It's there in case you feel incline. That's you. 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.160 You know. I like this way of you know, inviting 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:07.800 someone to play. Yeah, there's one friend of my um 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.040 it was, you know, the birthday of mine, and so 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.240 he inmited me to his house and he said, you know, 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.960 I know today's your birthday. Probably you will not play today, 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.240 but I just want to know. It's also my mother's birthday. 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:30.400 No pressure, So I played Heppy birthday for her. Also, 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.080 I heard it was public South and there's a like 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:38.679 rich lady in London always inviting him for tea um 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.760 and but he always has something to do. He did 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.760 not have time, and there's a family he came and 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:49.319 then the ladies like where is your chilu? Because I 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:54.280 was you did not you might my cello today Billy 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.120 Billy Joe did our show and Billy said that that 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.040 everywhere he goes. You know, obviously a considerable number of 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.480 people have a piano in their home, and he said 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:08.040 everywhere he goes, they're like, Billy, do you mind just 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:12.400 one quick tune? And and and everywhere he goes it's 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.240 like we play Christmas carols at the Christmas party? Where 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:17.079 do you find the same thing as true? Our people 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.920 constantly saying, but they do in a different way now 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.240 they say, uh, what am traveling? Oh so to you 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:35.040 need a place to practice anytime twenty four hours. I 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.440 don't have neighbors. It's okay, it's myself. I'm like, okay, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.440 I got it. I got it. Now before we get 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.120 to some other subjects that I've got a lot of questions. Here, 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.600 would you be gay less with some little yeah? I 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.800 will play yeah, I will play a one off of 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.840 the piece from the RICORDI. I don't know whish why, 0:14:53.920 --> 0:17:00.240 but I snyeah, they will come to you. M m yea, 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:36.920 thank you, thank you. This is the Vaults of Emily 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:42.640 from the movie Emily. It's really nice, nice movie. Yeah, yeah, 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.840 the describe for us how did the piano book come about? 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.080 Whose idea was this? I always wanted to do an 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.240 album like this because when I was a kid, I 0:17:53.560 --> 0:18:00.119 barely find um the professional musician recording pieces like or 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.840 Unies or Cherney atudes, or Clementi so natina or most 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:09.919 Art so natina, or some of the piece which you 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.720 consider be the beginner's piece. Um. But those are the 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:15.880 pieces I love the most when I was a kid. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.639 And then those those are my best friend. And sometimes 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.880 it's not best friends. Sometimes after a lot of practice, 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.639 become my worst friend. Uh. Sometimes sometimes I want to 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.199 kill them. Yeah, but in the end of the day, 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.800 you know, those are the brand and butter made UH 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:37.000 pianist to grow. Um So, so therefore I wanted to, 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:41.200 you know, to record something which can be appreciated by 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:45.720 every person who loves piano. Um. So that's why we 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.280 called the album the Piano Album. Yeah, and this is 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:53.120 for Deutsche and then it's it's already in release because 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.600 I have it on my phone. I don't thank you, 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.800 thank you? What was worth it? Believe thanks? I I 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.640 hope it's brings some something nice feelings. And I don't 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:12.560 don't always count the minute, please yeah that five second? Now, Now, 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:17.320 when you when you when you when you're leaving uh 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.040 very shortly in the next few days to go on 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:25.320 a tour, and you're you're gonna have a um You're 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:31.760 going to Rome and then you're going on to Korea Pacific. 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.359 So for now, when you go on these trips, the 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:35.960 first thing that comes to mind is that you know 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:42.560 you grew up in uh, communist China, and of course 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:47.560 Americans have their own you know, um unreliable images of 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.360 China and what what goes on in China. I don't 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.639 think they're quite sure. But for me, what I'm curious 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:56.159 about is how did the cultural revolution in China impact 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.439 your parents. When there's an impact on your mom, I 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.160 think that the revolution, of course this is from their 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:06.840 their generation. I wasn't there, but it certainly gave them 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:14.719 incredible um kind of I mean openness to to the 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.480 next generation. They want their kid, you know, to to 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.760 uh to be a citizen of the world. And they 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:24.320 you know, in a way that because they kind of 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:28.639 missed ten years of time to not connected to to 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.360 the world. Um and so so in a way that 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:36.320 that's why my generation of Chinese kids, um and not 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:40.359 kids anymore. Um. UM, we are very you know trying 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.560 to you know, learn piano and to to get connected 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:48.919 to the world of course being Chinese, but also a 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:52.119 world citizen. UM. So of like the our mission is 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:57.639 bridging the culture together. UM. This is your home now 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.600 in New York, New York home. Move to New York 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:06.360 in two thousand seven, after UM ten years in Philadelphia, 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.840 um since ninety seven and Curtis, Yeah, I was studying there, 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.159 um and then I was waiting to earn more money 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:19.000 to for the department here. So how's that going. Yeah, 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:21.439 it worked since two thousand seven, So that's that's why 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:26.120 I moved here. And uh, when I came to America 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:31.760 in ninety six, I was just fourteen and and I 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:35.359 thought New York is such a a CD with the 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.680 whole world behind. So I always wanted to to come 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:43.960 here to uh, you know, to be part of this. Um. 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:46.800 I mean because the cultural scene here is obviously very real. 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:49.800 New York as a cultural capital like other great cities, 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.000 but but maybe not as much as other cities. There 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:57.399 was no in Paris. I mean I actually do have 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:02.520 a new home in Paris fully six, so I mean 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:05.800 sold a few records, so it would be like Beijing, 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.400 New York on Paris. Like my yeah, but new sounds 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:13.480 like the perfect triangle New York, Beijing, Paris. But but 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.080 but but so when you when you travel the world, 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:19.960 are there halls that you play in or their people 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:22.840 that you play, ensembles that you play with that you 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:25.400 really get excited about? Like, what are among your favorite 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:28.320 spaces to perform it. I know that the acoustics are 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:30.960 very much of an issue because being on the board 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:34.320 of the Philharmonic and they're gonna be dynamiting David Geffen 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:36.200 Hall very shortly in the next year or two to 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:38.200 be dull of Geffen Hall. What's the space that when 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:41.080 you perform you just love the sound of that space? Um. 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:44.800 I mean there are many beautiful holes in the world. Um. 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:48.000 And of course you have Carnegie Hall. Here have Boston 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:52.480 Symphony Hall, it's really amazing sound. Um. And you have 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:56.800 the Music Faraye Concert House in Vienna, um and U. 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:01.520 And one of the very beautiful look um, like this 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:05.280 beautiful look is the Royal Arbort Hall in London. Maybe 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:07.639 the sound is not great, but it looks great, you 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:11.960 know e sometimes that come to you know, for TVD recording, 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:17.719 you know, live streaming. Nice place. Yeah, and uh, but 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.120 it's a really interesting because for pianists were normally play 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:25.000 on the side, right, so so we never really look 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:27.679 into audience somehow. I mean, if you want you do 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.600 like this right and then but in the Royal Arbort 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:35.160 Hall it's a round right, so everywhere's audien. So first 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:39.720 time I felt really nervous when I start playing Mozart, 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:43.080 you know, so delicate, and then I see someone sweeping 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:47.160 at me. I was like, oh, this is only downside. 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:50.360 I was playing the round House, you know, and I'm 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:54.680 thinking about cellist every day, you know, playing like wow, 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:58.080 that's that's tough. I move with you with Manhattan School 0:23:58.080 --> 0:24:00.399 of Music. I told you about this story. We're in 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:04.440 Central Park and you're playing Rhapsody in Blue and you're 0:24:04.480 --> 0:24:07.040 there with the Philharmonic with Alan. It's the concert in 0:24:07.080 --> 0:24:09.760 the Park and where that's obviously where the reverse you'd 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:12.040 be facing the other way, and you're playing the piano 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:14.760 and you get to this the most tender and the 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:18.960 most beautiful, the most gorgeous moment in that soft piano 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:20.840 part of Rhapso and Blue. And you get to the 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:23.679 end of the keyboard and you took this nano second 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:25.880 to look at the audience. Of course I'm projecting here. 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:27.159 And you get to the end of the piano and 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:29.879 you look at the You're like, you really love me, 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:34.520 You're really crazy about me. When I do this, When 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:37.359 I do this to this piano, you go crazy, don't you. 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:44.560 I know you do like, yeah, it's me. Yeah, with 0:24:44.640 --> 0:24:46.360 you and I said that your mother, and your mother 0:24:46.359 --> 0:25:01.560 goes exactly. That's him. That's what he does. The great 0:25:01.680 --> 0:25:08.840 pianist Long Long. He took his first lesson when he 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:11.880 was just three years old. You know who else got 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:15.879 his start at three? It Sack Proman playing on a 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:19.480 toy violin in his bedroom. I love the sound of 0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:22.359 the violin. I heard it on the radio and I said, 0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:25.240 that's what I want to do. Simple, that's what I 0:25:25.280 --> 0:25:28.119 want to do. And there's no explanation. You know, everybody 0:25:28.119 --> 0:25:32.520 has a different thing that grabs their imagination. And the 0:25:32.600 --> 0:25:35.000 violent sound was that, and I think it was fitz 0:25:35.080 --> 0:25:39.159 So he was pretty good for grabbing the imagination. You know, 0:25:41.200 --> 0:25:44.720 my full interview with its perman can be found. And 0:25:44.880 --> 0:25:48.560 here's the thing, dot Org long Long on music that 0:25:48.720 --> 0:26:41.360 moves him coming up. Yeah, I'm Alec Baldwin and you're 0:26:41.440 --> 0:26:44.680 listening to here's the thing. Long Long had barely hit 0:26:44.760 --> 0:26:49.439 puberty when he and his father landed in Philadelphia from Shenyang. 0:26:50.000 --> 0:26:54.040 The Curtis Institute of Music awarded Long Long of full scholarship. 0:26:54.560 --> 0:26:58.600 But teenagers still need a high school education. I still 0:26:58.640 --> 0:27:02.080 remember my first day in Phildelphia in high school and 0:27:02.280 --> 0:27:04.720 I went into the class and they say, and so 0:27:04.840 --> 0:27:08.920 introduce yourself, and I said, yeah, I'm I'm playing piano. 0:27:09.000 --> 0:27:13.560 I come here to to study classical music. And everybody 0:27:13.600 --> 0:27:16.080 looks at me. It's like they're seeing an alien. What 0:27:16.640 --> 0:27:19.760 a s a Mozart? You know Mozart? I say, I 0:27:19.840 --> 0:27:23.840 heard about that guy. Yeah, he's dead for many years. Right, 0:27:24.160 --> 0:27:26.040 I'm like, wow, this is something you know, I've been 0:27:26.080 --> 0:27:29.800 in a bubble. Oh. By the way, I also record Chopstick, 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:32.359 you know, but I did not know that piece in China. 0:27:32.440 --> 0:27:35.119 I did not know Chopstick. I know Chopstick, you know. 0:27:35.520 --> 0:27:39.160 But so so they so, you know, so they find 0:27:39.160 --> 0:27:44.240 me that jug my career would be over. Right. So 0:27:44.240 --> 0:27:47.639 so one day where you might them backstage offended off 0:27:47.680 --> 0:27:50.800 our course for there's a piano. They were in the 0:27:50.880 --> 0:27:53.680 rehearsal for two minutes and they cannot stand anymore. That 0:27:54.000 --> 0:27:57.040 they all came out because they just couldn't listen to symphony. 0:27:57.359 --> 0:28:00.000 And and they said, look, if there's a piano there, 0:28:00.160 --> 0:28:03.480 can you play chap stick? And and I also, yeah, 0:28:03.520 --> 0:28:05.399 so I don't. I don't really know. And then but 0:28:05.480 --> 0:28:09.040 they showed me and I started. But from that moment on, 0:28:09.200 --> 0:28:11.280 we became really good friends. It's also you know, this 0:28:11.440 --> 0:28:14.240 culture class is kind of you know, we went through 0:28:14.359 --> 0:28:17.000 that that point, um, and then I realized, you know, 0:28:17.080 --> 0:28:20.040 one day I should help my friend and classmate to 0:28:20.160 --> 0:28:24.399 have a bit of uh, you know, music inspirations in 0:28:24.520 --> 0:28:28.040 the school. So therefore, ten years ago we found it 0:28:28.560 --> 0:28:31.320 that the non non international Music Foundation in New York 0:28:31.960 --> 0:28:35.720 and now we have almost sixty schools. And I also 0:28:35.800 --> 0:28:41.560