Ning Feng
Violin Soloist
Ning Feng is recognised internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity. He performs across the globe with major orchestras and conductors, and in recital and chamber concerts in some of the most important international series and festivals. The Washington Post has described him as "a wonderful player with a creamy, easy tone and an emotional honesty” and BBC Music Magazine said of a recent recording “His silvery tonal purity, immaculate intonation and gently beguiling musicality have a way of making most other players sound decidedly effortful by comparison.”
Ning Feng has toured Europe, Asia and Australia with van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and has been the soloist on tours of China with many orchestras including the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer, with whom he has performed several times in Budapest, with the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester and Lawrence Foster, and with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he performs regularly. He has played with the Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Hallé, LA Philharmonic, National Symphony (Washington), Minnesota, Helsinki Philharmonic, Bilbao Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Vienna Radio and Melbourne Symphony orchestras amongst others and in 22/23 will make his debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked include Gianandrea Noseda, Marin Alsop, Yu Long, Tugan Sokhiev, and Vassily Petrenko.
In China, Ning Feng is held in the highest regard, appearing with all the major Chinese orchestras, visiting international orchestras and in recital. In 20/21 he was Artist-in- Residence with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and in the same season he performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Shanghai Symphony , Guangzhou Symphony and China Philharmonic orchestras.
Ning performs regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall where he recently performed the complete solo Sonatas and Partitas of Bach, live-streamed on YouTube. He has performed many times at Kissinger Sommer Festival, and has collaborated with artists including Edgar Moreau, Daniel Müller-Schott and Nicholas Angelich and Igor Levit.
In 22/23 he tours Italy with a solo Paganini programme.
Ning Feng records for Channel Classics. His recording of Bach’s complete solo works for violin was hailed by Gramophone as “unlike anyone else’s... it’s the illusion of a freewheeling conversation projected from within that held me captive." His discography also includes concerti by by Elgar, Finzi, Tchaikovsky, Bruch (Scottish Fantasy), works for violin and orchestra by Sarasate, Lalo, Ravel and Bizet/Waxman, and with the Dragon Quartet works by Schubert, Dvořák, Borodin, Shostakovich and Weinberg.
Born in Chengdu, China, Ning Feng studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music with Weimin Hu, 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 the 1710 Stradivari violin known as the ‘Vieuxtemps Hauser’, by kind arrangement with Premiere Performances of Hong Kong, and plays on strings
by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna. He lives in Berlin and is a Violin Professor at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule (Berlin) and also holds the position of International Chair of Violin at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.