NEW YORK, NY. (Top 40 Charts/
National Centre For The Performing Arts) - Two of classical music's most beloved and acclaimed superstars, American soprano Kathleen
Battle and Chinese pianist Lang Lang, will perform at the international opening of The
National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing's brand-new state-of-the-art performing arts center. Both artists will appear in special gala performances on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with the China
National Symphony Orchestra led by the highly sought-after Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who is currently the music director of theVienna
State Opera, and featuring an appearance by Russia's leading violinist Vadim Repin.
Taking place December 31st, 2007, at 8 pm and January 1st, 2008, at 7:30 pm, the gala performances celebrate the eagerly anticipated international opening of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Located in central Beijing, adjacent to the Great Hall of the People and Tiananmen Square, the Centre is the new Chinese focus for the performing arts and an important foundation for the creative cultural scene in China.
The international launch of China's foremost cultural center is significant, coming as it does on the cusp of the year that Beijing hosts the Olympic Summer Games. In 2008, all eyes will be on Lang Lang, who, serving as a cultural ambassador for his country, will tour the world in support of his eighth album, Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 4, which was released by Deutsche Grammophon in May 2007 and immediately topped Billboard's Classical Albums chart. The album has earned 25-year-old Lang Lang, whom the New York Times has praised as "the hottest artist on the classical music planet," a 2008 Grammy Award nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist.
Kathleen Battle's performances in China will also mark the beginning of a major year for the five-time Grammy-winning opera singer, who is a favored soloist with the world's most esteemed conductors and orchestras. In spring 2008, Battle will return to New York City's Carnegie Hall for her first recital there in many years. In 1991, Battle made her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut as part of the famed concert hall's 100th anniversary season. A celebrated recording of her performance received a Grammy Award. An American treasure, Battle has earned countless accolades for her luminous voice called "without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the world" by The Washington Post.
