Twenty-one-year-old pianist Lang Lang is the brightest of young stars. “Lang Lang’s story, like that of many athletic and artistic prodigies, is emblematic of an entire generation of Chinese parents and their only children, and their high expectations and extreme sacrifices for those children.”
Tag: 09.01.03
My Day As A Conductor
Pianist Susan Tomes is pressed into service as a conductor unexpectedly: “At first I stood at the foot of the stage with the score propped on a chair, and gave an upbeat. Astoundingly, they all came in together and, even more astonishingly, they kept playing; all the musical fragments fitted together in the correct places. I even found that I could make them speed up and slow down where indicated without losing them. There was something poignant about being the only person in possession of the whole map…”
Latin Music’s New Global Beat
There’s something new apparent in the lists of nominees for this year’s Latin Grammys. “Call it the globalization of Latin music. Not in the sense of a particular Latin genre hitting it big with non-Latins, i.e. salsa being hot in Europe or Latin-flavored American pop hitting it in the United States. This is about Latin music taking its place as an essential part of the world pop music pantheon.”