Lang Lang's Piano Book 2 includes classics, movies and video games

Internationally acclaimed Chinese pianist Lang Lang returns with his latest album Piano Book 2, set for release on Oct 17, featuring an eclectic array of music that aims to encourage people of all ages, especially children, to enjoy the delights of piano music.

The new album has 32 tracks that include classical masterpieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Erik Satie and Claude Debussy, along with contemporary work from the anime film Naruto, along with Hollywood movies La La Land, Amélie and Cinema Paradiso.

He also delves into work from the popular video game Black Myth: Wukong and Nobuo Uematsu's score for Final Fantasy X. Other tracks include the jazz standard I'm Confessin', popularized by Thelonious Monk, Joe Hisaishi's Spring and Ludovico Einaudi's Fly.

In an exclusive interview with China Daily in New York City, the famed pianist described how his upbringing in China still inspires his music.

He has also fully embraced his mission to encourage a new generation of children to have fun while playing the piano and foster a deeper understanding of Chinese music.

"When I was learning piano, which is 40 years ago, the repertoire was more like the European repertoire," he said. "And today, piano becomes a real global instrument. We have tremendous amounts of kids in China learning piano and there's a huge demand for new repertoire.

"And I know there are many, many, new generations of kids. They are not only playing classical European music, but also Chinese works, Japanese manga, Korean TV soaps. It's just become such a global instrument."

Piano Book 2 is set to be released on digital and physical formats by Deutsche Grammophon, part of Universal Music Group.

Tom Rudnick, marketing director at Universal Music Group, said at an album launch in New York, "Piano Book 2 and the Piano Book brand are about Lang Lang's desire to inspire everyone to fall in love with the classical piano.

"It's about elevating iconic piano hits from Bach to Mozart to new classics ... Lang Lang strikes an amazing balance between the all-time classics, new discoveries and famous pieces from film, anime and games."

Lang refers to the tracks on his new album as "miniature masterpieces." All were selected based on messages from fans, school syllabus content and his own teaching experience.

"I really enjoyed [performing] the gaming music from Black Myth: Wukong. When I was a kid, I really liked the theme song from the TV show of the Monkey King and so this is actually a continuity of that theme," he added.

His latest work comes six years after the release of the original Piano Book album, which has been streamed over one billion times worldwide and remains one of the best-selling classical albums of 2019.

It went platinum in China, reached the top 10 in the German pop charts and peaked at No 1 in the classical charts across the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan and Australia.

The 43-year-old, born into a musical family in Shenyang, Liaoning province in Northeast China, reminisced on how this father helped to ignite his love of sound.

"I grew up with my father playing the erhu (a two-stringed bow instrument). So, I heard a lot of folk music," he said. "So therefore, the sensibility of Chinese music making, which is quite unique, especially when you're adapting those flavors on the piano keys, it's quite interesting, because it's quite curvy, the Chinese music."

After winning several competitions, Lang and his father moved to the United States in 1997 so he could study.

But he never forgot his roots and is very proud of his hometown.

"It's a tremendous joy, you know, to bring my home city to the world," he said.

The Lang Lang International Music Foundation, founded in 2008, aims to educate, inspire and motivate the next generation of musicians. It has programs in over 50 cities.

The so-called 'Lang Lang effect' has seen the artist inspire tens of millions of children in his native China and worldwide to fall in love with the piano.

"Music changed my life into a much more interesting life," he said. "And I think music will do the same with other kids. So that's why I think it's necessary to spend a lot of time focusing on music education here and back in China and to really create a wonderful music program and to have a very concrete method."

Lang's long list of musical achievements includes performing for billions of people at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony.

In 2011, he was awarded a prestigious prize by the Ministry of Culture of China. He also performed at the Grammy Awards with Herbie Hancock in 2008, Metallica in 2014 and Pharrell Williams in 2015.

In 2013, he was made a messenger of peace focusing on global education by the secretary-general of the United Nations. He has received honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Music in London, the Manhattan School of Music and New York University, along with honors from Germany and France.

This fall, he will embark on a global tour, gracing the stage in Philadelphia on Dec 4 and at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City on Dec 7.

Fans witnessed his incredible talent in Canada between Sept 24 and 29, the United Kingdom from Oct 3 to 10. He will also perform in Germany from Oct 13 to Nov 8, France on Nov 11, Hong Kong from Dec 11 to 13 and several other countries in 2026.

Ahead of the tour, he explained his rigorous preparation.

"I have 12 piano concertos and five to six different pro-rounds for me to play. That is like 11 to 12 hours of works. That's a lot of repertoires to prepare. But it's good, because, look, it never gets boring, which is a good thing," he says with a smile.