The Piano star Lang Lang is one of the world’s most famous and talented pianists, and so we couldn’t imagine anyone better to star in the hit TV show The Piano as one of the judges.
The incredibly accomplished star also has a beautiful home life with his partner, Gina, and their baby son Winston. Find out everything to know about him here…
Lang Lang’s wife Gina
Gina Alice Redlinger is a fellow classical pianist who, similar to Lang Lang, started playing piano at a very young age. The Germany-born star began learning piano at age four and received tuition from pianist Irina Edelstein before performing with the Berlin Philharmonic. She is fluent in five languages, including Chinese, French, and English.
The happy couple first met in the mid-2010s and tied the knot at the Palace of Versailles in June 2019. They recently celebrated their fifth anniversary, with Lang Lang sharing a celebratory post on Instagram, writing: “Happy 5th Anniversary @ginaalicemusic,” accompanied by heart and flower emojis.
Lang Lang’s son
Lang Lang and Gina confirmed that they welcomed a baby boy named Winston in October 2021. At the time, Lang Lang shared a photo of the baby’s hand on social media, writing: “Gina and I are delighted to announce the birth of our baby boy. Welcome to the world.”
He had sweetly confirmed the news that they were expecting with a drawing of a baby by a piano, writing: “I am so excited to announce that Gina and I are expecting our first child. We could not be happier and cannot wait to welcome our new family member to the world.”
While the couple have kept their baby’s identity private, often covering his face in Instagram posts, the world-famous pianist spoke about him in an interview with the Telegraph. He explained that they had bought the toddler a piano that plays itself. Lang Lang said: “I think he likes conducting, cello, and dancing more than piano. I can see that. He likes piano, of course, but he knows that I play and his mother plays, so he’s not that keen to learn.
“But when he sees a string quartet… the other day in the shopping mall, he was the only one there to shout, ‘Bravo’. And he just stared at the cello the whole time, so afterwards Gina bought him a cello, which he is very happy about.
Lang Lang added that he had no plans to “push” the youngster into learning the piano, saying: “I will not. Only if he likes to perform, if he wants it, then I probably will support him… I’m not going to push him. I don’t think that will help anyway. If I didn’t like music, my parents couldn’t do much.
“Some people say, ‘Oh, if my parents pushed me every day for six or eight hours, I will become you.’ I say, ‘Yes, only if you want to’. Even if you get forced, in the end, you have to play on the stage by yourself. Nobody will play for you.
Lang Lang’s difficult childhood
Lang Lang had a very complicated relationship with his father, who saw potential in his son from a young age and had him learning piano at just two years old, aiming to turn him into the greatest pianist in the world.
At age nine, Lang Lang moved to Beijing with his father to gain a place at the Central Conservatory of Music. They shared a single bed in a flat with no electricity, where the pianist revealed that mice would eat his sheet music. After a piano teacher told them that Lang Lang didn’t have the potential needed to be a star, his father gave him pills and told him to end his life.
Speaking about what happened, Lang Lang told The Guardian: “One afternoon [my teacher] said that I had no talent, that I shouldn’t play the piano and I should go home. She basically fired me before I could even get into the conservatory! It’s really hard to talk about. My father went nuts. He said: ‘You shouldn’t live anymore – everything is destroyed.’”
After handing him pills, Lang Lang ran out onto the balcony, and his dad shouted: “Jump off and die.”
He added: “When I was nine, I didn’t like my father. I knew he had dedicated his life to me, but I thought it was too much. I found the pressure unnecessary because I was a workaholic from the very beginning. I could understand if I was lazy and didn’t care, but I didn’t need that kind of push, because I knew what I wanted.”
After not speaking for a long time, the pair have since reconciled. His father now looks after his affairs in China while his mother travels around the world with him. Lang Lang said: “When I was a boy, I didn’t spend much time with her, so now I really like having her with me. My mum stayed at home for years, working, so now it’s time for her to see the world.”