HE ARRIVES AT THE Grand Hyatt's Tiffin Lounge, fashionably late and dressed in a trendy nylon tracksuit. For one of China's leading classical pianists, it's an odd look. But then this is Kong Xiangdong, a self-confessed 'musical revolutionary' and celebrity who is making big business out of modernising and popularising his art form.
Kong, 35, is one of the driving forces behind a new wave of cross-over classical concerts on the mainland. His credentials as a concert pianist are strong. He joined the Shanghai Conservatory as a 10-year-old in 1978, becoming the youngest prize-winner of Moscow's Tchaikovsky International Competition in 1986 at age 18. By the following year he had won the first prize in the National Piano Competition of China. A move to America and training at the Curtis Institute propelled him on to the world stage.
With his return to his native Shanghai, Kong launched into immense tours of China, making a habit of doing charity shows ('oh, floods and earthquakes') as well as continuing his international career. Then, in 1999, he composed Endless Love for Canto-pop star Andy Lau Tak-wah.
'My mission is to reach out to non-musical people,' explains the bubbly Kong as he settles into a plush armchair. There is an American twang to his voice, and although there is only one sixteenth of Portuguese blood in his veins, he looks strangely European. He immediately launches into his plans of world domination - well, China at least.
In a similar vein to Croatian cross-over pianist Maksim Mrvica, who created a storm with his techno-backed Flight Of The Bumblebee at the Miss Hong Kong pageant last weekend, Kong is also blending traditional scores with showbiz tactics, stage antics and flashing light shows. That is the plan for the 'Kong Xiangdong Dream Concert Tour', which premieres at the Beijing Exhibition Centre on November 7 (the anniversary of the 1917 overthrow of the Soviet government, he is quick to point out).
'On the revolutionary day I will be delivering my own revolution. Of piano playing and how music should be treated and heard,' he explains. 'We have a very traditional way of presenting classical concerts - it could be more multi-media with stage settings and light shows.' The show, he reveals, will merge western classics with pop and Chinese folk songs.
