Lang Lang's "Keys of Inspiration" unveils in San Diego, California

"I really love classical. Playing for children is memorable for me and it's fun," said Elliot Wuu from the Lang Lang International Music Foundation Young Scholar program on Friday.

"Part of our mission for the program is to be ambassadors to elementary school children to introduce them to classical music and help them realize it's not boring, it's fun," said 16-year-old Wuu, "so it will be more inviting for the next generation to hear all this music."

Wuu, who recently won the First Prize in the 2015 Hilton Head International Piano Competition for Young Artist, on Friday performed three pieces of music at the opening ceremony of the first Piano Lab of "Keys of Inspiration" music class funded by the Foundation at High Tech Elementary Explorer in San Diego, California.

The Foundation, founded by Chinese talented pianist Lang Lang in 2008, started the "Keys of Inspiration" music class program three years ago. It is a three-year public school partnership program that has established a replicable pathway into the world of music for children at grades 2 to 5.

Currently, the "Keys of Inspiration" was launched in six schools in different cities, including New York City, Boston and San Diego, benefiting 1,223 students. The program plans to expand and serve over 6,200 students in the upcoming few years, according to the Foundation.

High Tech Elementary Explorer, an independent public school founded in 2000, is the first that launched the program in California. Selected schools receive a fully equipped piano lab, teaching materials and workbooks, and a full-time piano teacher.

Lukas Barwinski, the CEO of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, told Xinhua, "we are taking over the whole cost of all instrument, we are buying also all the education materials, like books and everything, and we are paying the salary to the music teacher for three years. And after three years, the school is taking over the lab and owns all instrument."

"In America, a lot of schools they don't have music at all," said Barwinski, "We are going to such schools which are very unprivileged and kids they cannot afford or their parents cannot afford to get private music lessons. So we are going to those schools and we are giving everything for free."

"It's not only a program; it's the curriculum in the school curriculum. So the kids are learning music like math or English. The whole second and third grade students at this school will have the lessons twice a week," said Barwinski.

"Music makes life better," says Lang Lang, who is on a mission to educate and inspire the next generation of classical music lovers to change their lives, the same way that music has changed his.

To date, more than 40 million children have been inspired to play piano because of Lang Lang. Endit