Updated posts 2026
Lang Lang International Music Foundation at Burch Estate: To celebrate the upcoming Lang Lang fall gala in NYC, Christopher Burch opened his new Watermill residence for a Young Scholars Concert by the Lang Lang International Music Foundation on Saturday, August 27th to give donors and philanthropists a preview of the talent that will be showcased at their annual fall gala. A longtime board member, Buch will soon again become the Foundation’s chairman.
The two Young Scholars, Eden Chen and Maxim Lando, performed solos at sunset with renditions of a varied program including Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux from The Nutcracker and Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue, Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever.
A program that moves from Tchaikovsky to Led Zeppelin in a single sitting says something deliberate about how these young musicians are being trained. Classical education has often treated repertoire boundaries as fixed, with anything outside the canon relegated to encore material at best. Placing a rock anthem alongside a ballet excerpt and a Sousa march signals a different approach, one that treats technical mastery as transferable rather than tied to a single tradition, and it tends to reach an audience that might otherwise tune out.
Lukas Barwinski-Brown, CEO of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, thanked Chris and spoke movingly of their work together, and how no child should be denied a musical education. Lang Lang’s Foundation now works on three continents, both partnering with schools in low income districts as well as mentoring for the most talented musicians. He also announced plans for the upcoming fundraiser, Lang Lang & Friends Gala Concert and Dinner, September 21 in New York City with performances by Lang Lang, his wife Gina Alice, Mauro Castillo (star of Disney’s Encanto), plus 20 of the Lang Lang Scholars.
Guests at the Burch residence included the Board Members David Hryck, and Kyle Wool, as well as Debbie Bancroft, Janna Bullock with her dog Cricket, Richard Burns, Candace Bushnell, Lord William and Liliana Cavendish, Luann de Lesseps, Max Dolgicer, Patricia Duff, Lee Fryd, Lucia Hwong Gordon, Carole Guest, Andrea Karambelas, Ellie Manko, Liane Pei, Mary Snow, Sophia Tang, Peter Thomas Roth, and many more.
For more information about the Lang Lang International Music Foundation and gala
Visit langlangfoundation.org, or call 212.518.7175
