Feng, Ning

Ning Feng is recognised internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity. Blessed with an impeccable technique and a silken tone, his palette of colours ranges from intimate delicacy to a ferocious intensity. The Berlin based Chinese violinist performs across the globe with major orchestras and conductors, in recital and chamber concerts.

Recent successes for Ning Feng have included a return to Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer in Budapest and on tour to China performing Dutilleux L’arbre des songes, tours with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and van Zweden to Europe, Asia and Australia, as well as successful debuts with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In recital and chamber music he performs regularly with Igor Levit, amongst others, at many of the major festivals in Germany and elsewhere, including Kissinger Sommer, Heidelberg, Moritzburg, MecklenburgVorpommern, Schubertiade and La Jolla Music Society (California).

Highlights of Ning Feng’s 2018/19 season include debuts with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Simone Young, the National Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop in Brazil and on tour to the Far East, the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Giancarlo Guerrero, the Hallé Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. He will return to the Konzerthausorchester Berlin to perform the Brahms Violin Concerto with Lawrence Foster in Berlin and on tour to China, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra with Karina Canellakis, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra with Fabien Gabel and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra with Yu Long. Chamber music highlights include Ning Feng’s debut at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in an all-Schubert programme with Nicholas Angelich and Edgar Moreau, his return to the Wigmore Hall and concerts with the Dragon Quartet which he founded in 2012.

Ning Feng records for Channel Classics in the Netherlands and his latest disc of the Elgar and Finzi Violin Concertos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto was released in Autumn 2018. His previous recording of Bach’s complete solo works for violin has already been hailed by Gramophone as “unlike anyone else’s… it’s the illusion of a freewheeling conversation projected from within that held me captive”. Previous discs include Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and Bruch Scottish Fantasy with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, ‘Apasionado’ with the Orchestra Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias featuring works by Sarasate, Lalo, Ravel and Bizet/Waxman, a recording of Schubert and Dvořák Quartets with his Dragon Quartet and two CDs of violin solo repertoire.

Born in Chengdu, China, Ning Feng studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, the Hanns Eisler School of Music (Berlin) with Antje Weithaas and the Royal Academy of Music (London) with Hu Kun, where he was the first student ever to be awarded 100% for his final recital. The recipient of prizes at the Hanover International, Queen Elisabeth and Yehudi Menuhin International violin competitions, Ning Feng was First Prize winner of the 2005 Michael Hill International Violin Competition (New Zealand), and in 2006 won first prize in the International Paganini Competition.

Ning Feng plays a 1721 Stradivari violin, known as the ‘MacMillan’, on private loan, kindly arranged by Premiere Performances of Hong Kong, and plays on strings by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna.

https://www.ningfengviolin.com/