Lang Injury forces switch at Carnegie Hall;

Voyager record now available.

What Happens when your star pianist can't make the Gig because of an injury?  

Lang Lang, one of the world’s most popular pianists, was scheduled to headline Carnegie Hall's opening-night gala.

But he has been out of commission for several months with a classical musician’s worst nightmare: an injury that has left him unable to use his left arm.

Mr. Lang and Carnegie came up with a unique solution to make sure the show goes on: Mr. Lang’s 14-year-old protégé, Maxim Lando, will sit beside him at the piano and serve as his left hand as they play a rare two-piano version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with another star, the jazz pianist Chick Corea.

This will be a first for Mr. Lang, who said in an interview that he had performed works for one hand, two hands, four hands “But,” he said, “never five hands.”

Mr. Lang said he injured his arm earlier this year practicing Ravel’s left-hand concerto.

 “I was not paying so much attention, I was already tiring, and I pushed (Myself) too quickly …” Mr. Lang said that he was healing well and had begun returning to his normal routine.

Ever heard of the The Golden Record? it's a 90-minute interstellar mixtape, a message of goodwill from the people of Earth to any extraterrestrials who might find one of the two Voyager spaceships.

But since it was sent into space decades ago, not many people have ever heard all the music that was included.

"The Voyager records are the farthest flung objects that humans have ever created," said Timothy Ferris, a science and music journalist and the original producer of the record. In the late 1970s, Ferris and his friend Carl Sagan, helped create two recordings of earth music, sounds and speech to accompany NASA's Voyager mission; The final selection, which was engraved in copper and plated in gold, included opera, rock 'n' roll, blues, classical music and spoken word.

Ferris says that from the beginning Carl sagan and others tried to interest record labels in releasing Voyager commercially but music rights issues prevented it.  Recently Ferris and others put the project on Kickstarter, expecting to sell it to vinyl collectors, space nerds and audiophiles — but the response they got was overwhelming,  raising more than $1.3 million dollars-- making it the most successful musical Kickstarter campaign ever.

 It’s available now, Just in time for Christmas, you can pre-order the golden record box set at the ozma records website for just under 100 dollars.

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