Ning Feng is the winner of dozens of prestigious prizes including most recently the first-prize of the famous Paganini Violin Competition in Italy (2006) and the first-prize of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand (2005).

Still in his 20s, Ning has astounded audiences with his amazing technique and emotional maturity. He has performed recitals and concerts in China, Canada, UK, Belgium, France, Italy, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, USA and Germany with an array of top orchestras.  

Since winning the Paganini, he has been in heavy demand the world over, including invitations to perform in Boston, New York, Tokyo, Rome, Berlin, and Beijing and from the Moscow International Performing Arts Center. An extensive 10-orchestra tour of Asia, Australia and New Zealand is planned for 2008. As an honor He was invited to play with Chinese National Orchestra in China national New Year concert. He is also invited to play at opening concert of National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, one of the largest performing center in the world.

In 1998, Ning studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with full scholarship. After he was invited by Lord Y. Menuhin to perform in Germany, the Maestro commented, “I was most impressed with his performance …. And feel that he has real talent and musicianship to go very far.”  In  2003, Ning  became the first student ever in the history of the Royal Academy of Music to get the full mark for the Final Recital.

Ning has also made recordings for JVC Records and Triton Records in Japan as well as Cypres Records in Belgium. His new CD of Paganini violin pieces was just released worldwide by Channel Classics  

BIOGRAPHY

Ning  Feng was born in Chengdu, China in 1981. He started learning the violin with private teacher Mr. Youxin Wen at the age of four, giving his first performance the following year.

In 1992 he entered the High School of Sichuan Conservatoire of Music where he studied with Prof. Weimin Hu. In 1995, Feng Ning participated in the Darrtington International Summer School in England where he had master classes with R. Ricci and his future teacher in London Prof. Hu Kun. In the summer of year 1997 and 1998, he was one of the seven young violinists who were selected from the whole P.R.China to attend the Morningside Music Bridge workshop in Calgary, Canada. Also in 1997, he won the Grand Prize (for all candidates in four different sections including Violin, Piano, Flute and Oboe) and the First Prize for violin in the 5^th International Art Competition for High School Students in Takasaki Japan, and was invited by the Competition Committee several times in the next year to perform in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and made recordings for JVC Victor Records.

In Sep.1998, Feng Ning was invited as a full scholarship student to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Prof. Hu Kun. In Feb.1999, after the master class given by late Lord Y.Menuhin, he was invited by the Maestro to perform in Germany. Afterwards, the Maestro wrote: “I was most impressed with his performance …. and feel that he has real talent and musicianship to go very far.” . In the same year, Feng Ning won the “Association Damson Francois-Scarbo” Prize in the International Jacques Thibaud Violin Competition in Paris. In April 2000, he came second in the Folkestone Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition for Young Violinist. One week after, he won the Royal Philharmonic Society, “Emily Anderson Prize” in London. In Feb 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^th of June, 2001. In May 2001, he finished 5^th in the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. And two month later, he won the First Prize in the London Oratory International Violin Competition. In year 2002, he was awarded the “Emily English Scholarship” from the Musicians Benevolent Found in London. And in the same year, he got the special prize for “The Best Performance of The Modern Piece” in the International Tchaikovsky Music Competition in Moscow. Also during his study in the Royal Academy of Music, he was also the winner for few times at the Hattori Foundation in London and was awarded several prizes by the Royal Academy of Music, including the “Roth Prize” for violin and the “Wilfrid Parry Prize” for violin & piano duo. He also received his LRAM (qualification as a violin teacher) from the Academy.

In June 2003, Ning became the first student ever in the nearly 200 years Academy history to be given the full mark (100%) for his Final Recital (end of study exam) in the Royal Academy of Music. And he was elected as the Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) which is a Associateship which may only be offered to the graduated student of the Royal Academy who have achieved distinction in their profession.  

In September 2003, Feng won the 3^rd prize in the Hannover International Violin Competition in Germany. After the competition, he continued his study in Berlin at the Hochschule für Music “Hanns Eisler” with Prof. Antje Weithaas. In December 2003, he won the 1^st prize in the XIII Violinwettbewerb der Ibolyka Gyarfas Stiftung. And in Feb 2005, he succeeded in the 13. Wettbewerb von Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfounds in Hamburg, as he was generously offered a G. Guadagnini (1756) violin by the foundation.

In June 2005, Ning won the 1^st Prize at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand.

In September 2006, Feng Ning won the 1^st prize as well as two other special prizes at the prestigious 51^st Paganini International Violin Competition in Genova, Italy, and he was invited to perform with the Paganini’s own violin – The 1743 Guarneri del Gesù 'Cannone'

In year 2005, Feng Ning’s frist solo CD was released in China, he has also made recordings for the JVC Records, Triton Records in Japan, the Cypres Records in Belgium and the Channel Classics in Netherlands. Feng Ning has performed recitals and concerts in China, Canada, UK, Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, USA and Germany, with the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the Belgium National Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonia Vienna, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the I Musici de Montreal, the Auckland Philharmonia, etc.  
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REVIEW

It's not surprising that Feng Ning won the 2006 "Premio Paganini" in Genoa, when you hear him play "devil violinist" [Paganini's] "Le Streghe" Variations, as he did recently at a Gotthard-Schierse-Stiftung summer matinee in the Musical Instruments Museum.

One is astounded not just by the rapid jumps, scales and pizzicato - but [Ning] makes an even more fascinating impression in the lyrical passages, with tenderly nuanced structures full of delicate protractions, promises and refusals. The young violinist, a student of Antje Weithaas at the Eisler-Hochschule, is able to change virtuosity into a pure desire for life.

With a phenomenal presence, particularly in his rhythmic sensibilities, he brings Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata" to a hurricane of tension and passion, almost overly trenchant. With his piano accompanist Thomas Hoppe he finds the perfect sound balance in Francis Poulenc's Sonata of 1938, fusing perfumed sweet-nothing salon themes with sharply conflicted and impassioned dissonant upswings.

Isabel Herzfeld, August 7, 2007, Department: Berlin Culture

"[Feng Ning and Michael Houstoun] gave a capacity audience a memorable example of what chamber music is all about.

"Phrase by phrase, against Houstoun's limpid keyboard, Ning was the soul of elegance...

"...for Richard Strauss' Sonata... Ning's violin soared in the outer movements and, with the sympathetic Houstoun, shaped the ebb and flow of its Andante cantabile to perfection.

"The Finale was a heroic stand, with Ning in full arpeggiando splendour and Houstoun's piano hinting at worlds yet to be fully revealed in the composer's tone poems and operas.

"Poulenc's Sonata shimmered like shot silk, a child of the salon and the jazz club in equal parts."

William Dart New Zealand Herald, June 27, 2007

"This was a performance that swept all before it. It was impossible not to be won over by the Andantino barcarolle [of the Saint-Saëns concerto], especially when Ning's airy harmonics shadowed the clarinet so immaculately. There was little point in resisting a Finale that catapulted us from tzigane passion to Wagnerian ecstasy."

William Dart New Zealand Herald, June 25, 2007

"I can't remember when I last saw the Town Hall Concert Chamber filled to capacity as it was for Monday's outstanding recital by violinist Feng Ning and pianist Michael Houstoun."

William Dart, The New Zealand Herald, 7 June, 2006

The concert included the drawcard performer, Feng Ning, his glorious tone sadly wasted in Bruch's showy Scottish Fantasy. Then, as if to prove that he could quite easily play the impossible, he tossed off Paganini's Variations on God Save the Queen, which asks for a fantastic array of double-stops, pizzicato from both hands, trills and scales.

Rod Biss in The Listener, June 17-23 2006

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