CUBA-MUSIC/LANG LANG China's star pianist Lang Lang performs for the first time in Cuba with Chucho Valdes

Record ID: 136230

  • Title: CUBA-MUSIC/LANG LANG China's star pianist Lang Lang performs for the first time in Cuba with Chucho Valdes
  • Date: 9th October 2015
  • Summary: LANG LANG PLAYING PIANO
  • Embargoed: 24th October 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4TSGMF5IFK4W93WV22FV0MPMG
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: China's flamboyant pianist Lang Lang and the legendary Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes played together during a rehearsal in Havana, ahead of a unique concert that will take place on Friday (October 9), dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the Cuban capital.
    It is the first time the Chinese pianist has traveled to Cuba and also played with pianist and composer, Valdes, considered one of the most important musicians on the island.
    "It's incredible for me to come to Cuba for the first time. I know Havana, the city, from films, from books, from movies, from the internet, for so many years, and such a beautiful city and tomorrow's concert is going to be very special, because we are marking the city of Havana's 500 years of celebration and to be in the same concert with my good friend Chucho Valdes and playing Cuban music, in Havana, that's going to be something," Lang said.
    Lang and Valdes rehearsed on Thursday (October 8) for the concert which will be offered by the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, this time led by the American Marin Alsop, the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
    Valdes said he was very excited.
    "A treat to have an artist of the stature of Lang Lang doing a concert here, on the 500th anniversary of the city of Havana, the founding of the city of Havana and the people, it's good, the public is very excited, everyone wants to see the concert, wants to see Lang Lang, the Symphony and what we're going to do, so this is going to be incredible," Valdes said.
    In the open stage at the Cathedral Square in Havana, a site considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, dozens of onlookers enjoyed the rehearsal, especially Cuban music students.
    "Being able to share with him (Lang Lang) listen to him, take pictures with him is amazing. I, for example could not have imagined being told, 'You are going to meet him and be close to him', it's amazing, it's like having your aspiration, your greatest aspiration so close to you, see him like this, it's amazing," said Cuban piano student, Magda Lisa Osorio.
    Hundreds of people are expected to attend the concert, which will be free and open to the public.
    The concert program will include works from composers such as Tchaikovsky, George Gershwin and Cuban Ernesto Lecuona, while some pieces will be performed with four hands by Lang Lang and Valdes.
    A piano from Steinway & Sons concert house was transported from New York to Havana especially for the occasion. After the concert, it will stay in Cuba, at the Teatro Amadeo Roldan Auditorium, the home of concert music in the city.
    "It's the first time that we have donated a piano to Cuba and we are honoured to be a part of such an extraordinarily musical event, taking two different styles of music. Lang Lang is a wonderful Steinway artist, and Chucho Valdes, is just a beloved Cuban son, putting them together into this wonderful, wonderful musical event that brings people together," said the President Of Steinway & Sons Americas, Ron Losby.
    Lang Lang's global profile has risen rapidly in recent years as he played sold-out recitals around the world and his album sales ranked him as a best-selling classical musician.
    He gave his first public recital at the age of five and when he was nine he entered Beijing's Central Music Conservatory. Lang Lang left China at 15 to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with his big break coming two years later when he played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
    Valdes, who has won five Grammy awards over his musical career and founded jazz group Irakere, is one of the most important figures in the history of Cuban jazz music.
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