Ning Feng

Since winning the famous Paganini Violin Competition in September 2006, offers have been flooding in from all over the globe for performances with this young virtuoso. In 2007 alone he appeared by invitation in Boston, New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Rome, Moscow and Berlin, as well as other cities in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France, China, Canada and New Zealand. An extensive Asia-Australia-New-Zealand orchestral tour planned for 2008, with numerous debuts throughout those areas as well as in the United States and Germany, makes him one of the fastest-rising violin stars in the world today.

Feng Ning was born in Chengdu, China, where he started the violin at age four. He studied at the Sichuan Music Conservatory with Prof. Weimin Hu, participated in master classes with Ruggiero Ricci at the Dartington International Summer School in England, and in 1997 was one of the seven young violinists selected from the entire People's Republic of China to attend the Morningside Music Bridge workshop in Calgary, Canada. The same year he won the overall Grand Prize -for candidates in four different sections, including Violin, Piano, Flute and Oboe- and the First Prize for violin in the 5th International Art Competition for High School Students in Takasaki, Japan, resulting in a tour to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and a recording contract with JVC Victor Records.

In 1998, Feng Ning was invited as a full scholarship student to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Professor Hu Kun. There he participated in a master class with the late Lord Menuhin, who invited him to perform in Germany at one of the last concerts he organised. Afterwards, Lord Menuhin wrote: "I was most impressed with his performance... and feel that he has real talent and musicianship to go very far".

During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he was the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the ‘Roth Prize' for violin, the ‘Wilfrid Parry Prize' for violin and piano duet, and was several times the recipient of prizes from the Hattori Foundation in London.

In June 2003, Feng Ning became the first student ever to be given a perfect score (100%) for his final recital -end of study exam- in the nearly 200 years of history of the Royal Academy of Music, and was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music [ARAM], an honour reserved for only those graduates who have achieved distinction in their profession.

While still a student in London, Feng Ning racked up more prizes and competition wins. In 1998 he won the ‘Association Damson François-Scarbo Prize' in the International Jacques Thibaud Violin Competition in Paris, and one week later won the Royal Philharmonic Society ‘Emily Anderson Prize' in London. In 2001, he was awarded the ‘The Friends of the Royal Academy of Music - Wigmore Award' and gave his debut recital at the prestigious Wigmore Hall on the 4 June, 2001. One month later he won the First Prize in the London Oratory International Violin Competition.

In 2002, Feng Ning was awarded the ‘Emily English Scholarship' from the Musicians Benevolent Found in London, and won the special prize for ‘The Best Performance of The Modern Piece' at the International Tchaikovsky Music Competition in Moscow. In 2003 he won the 1st prize in the 13th Violinwettbewerb der Ibolyka Gyarfas Stiftung, and two years later won 1st Prize at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand.

In September 2006, Feng Ning crowned his professional career to date by winning 1st prize as well as two other special prizes at the prestigious 51st Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy. As a result of this competition, he was invited to perform on N. Paganini's own violin --the 1743 Guarneri del Gesù ‘Canno, an honour which was repeated with a new invitation to perform in the Opening Concert of the Festival Paganiniana in September 2007 in Genoa.

In 2005, Feng Ning's first solo cd -which has now sold out- was released in China, and he has also made recordings for JVC Records and Triton Records in Japan, and Cypres Records in Belgium. His newest cd, Mr Paganini, was released on Channel Classics in the Netherlands in 2007. Feng Ning has performed recitals and concerts in China, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, the United States of America, Germany, New Zealand and Australia, and has performed with the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Akron Symphony, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Symphonia Vienna, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the Orchestre de Chambre I Musici de Montréal, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Vector Wellington Orchestra and the Christchurch Symphony, amongst many others.

Feng Ning is based in Berlin, where he has just completed his studies with Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. He plays a Peter Stefan Greiner violin -Bonn 2007-.