Kun Xiangdong

Kun Xiangdong (in the old sources Kun Xiang Tong , Chinese 孔祥東 ; born October 22, 1968 , Shanghai ) is a Chinese pianist.

In early childhood, during the Cultural Revolution in China , he secretly studied music with his mother using the keyboard drawn on the kitchen table ^[1] . Then he entered the Shanghai Conservatory , where he studied with Fan Daley. At the age of ten, he became one of the young Chinese musicians who appeared in the documentary film " From Mao to Mozart ", which spoke about the boom of academic music in China. In 1986 he took part in the International Tchaikovsky Competition , taking seventh place; the observer noted in his performance “purity of color, grace”, although “details and background sometimes obscured the main melodic line” ^[2] .

After completing his education at home, Kun Xiangdong continued it in the USA at Brigham Young University and in 1988 won the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition , which gave him the opportunity to debut with a concert in New York , the critic noted the pianist’s particular success in spectacular bravura compositions ^[3] . Then he completed his vocational training at the Curtis Institute . In 1992, he also won the Sydney International Piano Competition . In 1995, he performed at the Hollywood Bowl concert venue with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra , performing the Second Concert of Sergei Rachmaninov , the favorite work of his Chinese mentor ^[4] .

In 1999, Kun Xiangdong gave a concert in Lhasa , together with Giorgio Moroder , with whom he continued to collaborate (in particular, two musicians wrote the song “Friends Forever”, which participated in the competition for the official song of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing )