Violin: Ning Feng
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 music 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 Jaap van Zweden to Europe, Asia and Australia, a tour to China with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and Lawrence Foster as well as successful debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zhang Xian, National Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Simone Young. In recital and chamber music Ning Feng performs regularly with Igor Levit, amongst others, at many of the world’s major festivals and concert venues.
 
Highlights of Ning Feng’s 2019/20 season include returns to the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Osmo Vänskä, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with Xian Zhang and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra with Yu Long. He will be giving his debuts with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta with whom he will perform Henze Violin Concerto No.2. New to his repertoire will also be the Goldmark Concerto which Ning Feng will be performing with the Royal Philharmonic, China Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, all under the baton of Yu Long. Chamber music highlights include Ning Feng’s return to the Schubertiade Festival for duo recitals with Igor Levit and chamber music concerts at Cologne Philharmonie and for the Barbican Centre in London. He will also be performing a number of solo Bach recitals marking the 300th anniversary of Bach’s completion of his solo sonatas at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and elsewhere.
 
Ning Feng records for Channel Classics in the Netherlands and his new disc “Virtuosismo” featuring Paganini Violin Concerto No.1 and Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No.4 was released in September 2019. His earlier recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo 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." Further discs include recordings of the Elgar and Finzi Violin Concertos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the 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, and Ravel, two releases with the Dragon Quartet featuring string quartets by Schubert, Dvořák, Borodin, Shostakovich and Weinberg 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.
 

Piano: Huang Qiuning
As a U.S. based young pianist, chamber musician, teacher of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, member of Shanghai Musician Association, and Shanghai “Chen Guang” Scholar, Huang Qiuning received her double bachelor degrees in piano and electric keyboard from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and her master degree in piano performance from the same institution. In 2014, she completed another master’s degree in collaborative piano from the New England Conservatory. She studied under renowned pianists and educators such as Chen Kuanhong, Zhu Lei, Sheng Yiqi, Vivian Wielerstein and Cameron Stowe. During the course of studying, she received the guidance and praise from many well-known masters such as Fu Cong, Arie Vardi, Russel Sherman, Gray Graffman, etc.
 
As a solo pianist and a chamber musician, Ms. Huang appeared worldwide including Vienna, Salzburg, Boston, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai, among many other major cities. She has collaborated with some great orchestras and musicians such as: Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Nobuco Imai (famous violist), Angelo Xiang Yu (Lincoln Center violinist), Martti Roussi (famous cellist) and others. These years, Ms. Huang has been in frequent demand as a collaborative artist working in artistic direction with Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Laurence Lesser, and other renowned masters. Her quartet (members include violinist Mason Yu, violist Dana Kelly, cellist Jamie Clark) has made a number of appearances in the U.S. She has frequently been invited to give performances in music festivals such as Mozarteum Festival (Austria), Foulger Festival (USA), Morningside Bridge, Walnut Hill Festival (USA), Banff Festival (Canada), among others.
 
Since 2014, Ms. Huang has been a faculty member at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and devotes herself to chamber music teaching and performance. She was awarded “Chen Guang Scholar” in 2017 and is actively involved with noticeable results in the “Shanghai High Education Junior Faculty Funding Project” sponsored by the Shanghai Education Committee and the “Yin Cai Bei Chu” project by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

 
Program

Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano No.8 in G Major, Op.30.3
 
Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano No.10 in G Major, Op.96
 
Intermission
 
Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano No.9 in A Major “Kreutzer”, Op.47

(Please check program updates at the concert.)