The inaugural Lang Lang Piano Summer Intensive reached its crescendo with an intimate concert at the Saudi Music Hub in Riyadh from the maestro himself. On 24 July 2025, internationally acclaimed Chinese pianist Lang Lang performed a captivating programme to an audience of just 140 guests to mark the end of a month-long collaboration with the Saudi Music Hub and the Lang Lang International Music Foundation masterminded by the Music Commission to empower the next generation of pianists in the Kingdom.
Paul Pacifico, the CEO of the Music Commission, under the Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia, declared, “This initiative marks a bold new chapter in the evolution of music education in the Kingdom. By partnering with world-class international educators, we are not only nurturing the next generation of Saudi talent but also expanding the horizons of our cultural ambitions.”
Taking place between 29 June – 24 July 2025, and open to all citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia, aspiring intermediate-to-advanced pianists from the age of seven at ABRSM Grade 3 and above attended daily masterclasses and private lessons, and participated in group workshops, performance classes, and musicianship training under Lang Lang’s artistic direction, with impressive results.
In a fireside chat with Paul Pacifico following his solo performance of his favourite pieces from the Romantic era, the Steinway artist revealed, “The students here are very musical. They like to express themselves and they’re very curious about what they’re learning. They really love music, you feel it.” Whilst conceding that, “Maybe technically it’s not there yet,” he believes, “this can be worked on very fast. They’re very musical kids and I see a brilliant future.”
According to Lang Lang, there is huge potential in the Kingdom to create the new sound of Saudi: “During our sessions, we had a few kids from Saudi Arabia that not only play Western classical music, but they compose their own music influenced by the mountain landscapes. There is a feeling of personal stories happening here and I thought that was really inspiring.”
Singling out the work of promising young talent Bader Ahmad Bashmail, aged 26, Lang Lang remarked, “I hear a bit of Chopin of Saudi Arabia in these compositions – a kind of neo music coming from the Kingdom.”
On his hopes for the first graduates of the Lang Lang Piano Summer Intensive at the Saudi Music Hub in Riyadh, the Hublot ambassador shared, “Music for me is the sixth sense. You have to feel it and you should get very excited about it. First of all, I really hope that the students here really enjoy music and love the process of making music because, if you don’t feel the excitement or the heartbeat of the music, it’s very hard to keep going.”
Addressing the students, he continued, “Then the second thing I hope is that through this process you know what to do for the next few months to a year, which direction you need to work on to get better, and to also get to a certain level of improvement happening in your music.”
And, following the news that thanks to a Music Commission initiative 7,000 kindergarten teachers are now qualified to teach music, Lang Lang exclaimed, “I hope we will see a wonderful result of the opening up of music studies in Saudi Arabia to help the kids understand in other subjects in the curriculum.” He adds, “Everything is connected, and music is a bridge, so I really hope these new music studies in the schools can help them understand history, mathematics, literature, poems, arts, and sports as well.”
On the wider ambitions of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, he shared, “I really hope that every one of us in the world would have music education in their life. Music completely changed my life – it would be so different if I weren’t playing music, I probably would not have this world connection. I’m making friends and building bridges from different cultures to have a very meaningful life. This is not only for me, but every musician. When you start the learning process, you start a lifelong journey. And exactly how music changed me is I what hope for other people – in different ways, of course.
When asked about the legacy he would like to leave, Lang Lang added, “It’s important to perform around the world, but it’s also important to me to spend time with the youngsters to build this generation-to-generation experience in music. To have this heart-to-heart conversation through music with different generations is something I really love to do.”
