Lang Lang will stage a piano concerto at the National Center for the Performing Arts in April. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

So, besides performing the works of Debussy and Liszt, Lang will also perform pieces by three Spanish composers－Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albeniz and Enrique Granados－who are not very familiar to Chinese audiences.

In 2009, Lang performed Chopin's piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Mehta. In 2015, the pianist and the conductor worked together again.

Referring to his upcoming collaboration with Mehta, he says: "I am looking forward to working with the maestro again."

Lang will perform works by Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg at the NCPA in December.

"I will go to Bergen, the hometown of the composer. I hope the trip will help me better understand the composer and his works."

Ren Xiaolong, the managing director of the NCPA symphony orchestra, says the upcoming North American tour of the ensemble, under NCPA's artistic director of music, Lu Jia, will see Lang performing The Yellow River Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall in New York on Oct 30.

Lang was born in Shenyang, an industrial city in Liaoning province. He says he first became interested in learning the piano after watching the Tom and Jerry episode The Cat Concerto, which features the Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 by Franz Liszt.

He first went to Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music and at 15, he began his studies with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Speaking about his other links with the NCPA, he says: "I have many classmates from the Central Conservatory of Music, who are now performing with the NCPA orchestra. So I feel very close to the ensemble."

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