Born in Chengdu, China, Ning Feng studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music and the Royal
Academy of Music, London. In 2006 Ning Feng won first prize in the International Paganini
Competition, following in the footsteps of violinists such as Kavakos, Kremer and Accardo. He was
First Prize winner of the 2005 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, New Zealand, and has
won prizes at the Hanover International, Queen Elisabeth and Yehudi Menuhin International violin
competitions.
Having performed regularly in China at the highest level, Ning Feng is now developing a reputation
internationally as an artist of great lyricism and emotional transparency, displaying tremendous
bravura and awe-inspiring technical accomplishment. Highlights of Ning Feng’s 2011/12 season
include concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic/Delfs, Galicia Symphony/Harth-Bedoya, Calgary
Philharmonic/Minczuk and Orchestre National de Lyon/Foster. He made a last-minute and highly-acclaimed
contribution to the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival in January 2012;
later this year he returns to the Kissinger Sommer festival, Bad Kissingen, for chamber concerts
and makes his debut at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in two recitals.
Looking ahead to future seasons, Ning Feng is welcomed back by the Hong Kong Philharmonic and
Auckland Philharmonia orchestras, makes his debut with orchestras in Bilbao, Strasbourg, Zagreb,
Sarajevo, Ljubljana and Moscow, at the Prague Spring and Tivoli festivals, and returns to Colmar
and Gstaad festivals. Regarded increasingly as an artist of exceptional quality, he is being paired
with conductors of great esteem such as Vladimir Jurowski, Jaap van Zweden, Sir Mark Elder and,
most notably, toured China in 2010 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under the baton of Iván
Fischer.
Ning Feng records for Channel Classics in the Netherlands. His most recent recording, Solo,
featuring works by Paganini, Kreisler, Berio, Schnittke and others, received a first-class review by
Audiophile Audition: “You will be blown away by the artistry of this album, and blown away in great
sound to boot. This is a stunning recording of solo violin works by a variety of composers […] and
there are really few violinists who are able to pull it off. Ning Feng is one of those who can, not only
for his sterling playing but also because of the rabid intelligence behind the selection of pieces here.
None of these works is anything less than enthralling, and a few approach the incandescent.
Milstein’s arrangement of the Paganiniana has never been bettered […] this is an unqualified
recommendation of a wonderful album that demonstrates the highest artistic and programming skills
possible.”
Ning Feng is based in Berlin and plays a Stefan-Peter Greiner violin (Bonn 2007).
Ning Feng is represented by Intermusica.
March 2012 / 453 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
SOLO (album), Channel Classics
“You will be blown away by the artistry of this album, and blown away in great sound to boot. This is a stunning recording of solo violin works by a variety of composers … and there are really few violinists who are able to pull it off. Ning Feng is one of those who can, not only for his sterling playing but also because of the rabid intelligence behind the selection of pieces here. None of these works is anything less than enthralling, and a few approach the incandescent. Milstein’s arrangement of the Paganiniana has never been bettered … this is an unqualified recommendation of a wonderful album that demonstrates the highest artistic and programming skills possible.”
Audiophile Audition, February 2011
Elgar Violin Concerto
“The heart of the concert was Ning Feng's amazing performance of Elgar's… Concerto. He offered up playing of such idiomatic sureness, and fresh spontaneity, that I cannot recall another performance of the work as compelling. And what technical wizardry he has in his armory, and what a huge rich, sound he makes. He stands out, in my view, from almost all the myriad young violinists now on the world stage.”
John Button, Dominion Post (New Zealand), September 2010
“Ning communicates with immediacy and produces an extraordinary range of dynamics… all in immaculate intonation and phrasing. A slew of bravos greeted his dainty encore, a transcription of Tarrega's memories of The Alhambra. Paganini lives again.”
Singapore Straits Times, May 2010
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
“A terrific performance… The fascinating effect he created was not just brilliant technical execution; what stood out was the tonal beauty Ning Feng retained, even in the boisterous fireworks runs, the double stops, and the frequent extreme high register playing.”
Nordsee-Zeitung, April 2009
Paganini's Violin Concerto No.1
“Paganini's Violin Concerto No.1 can acquire a stature all of its own when its challenges are met head on. Chinese violinist Ning Feng did exactly that. An extraordinary powerhouse of a performer with an unforgettably dazzling technique, he made this tortuously difficult work look like a stroll in the park.”
The Australian, March 2009
“Ning's greatest asset is the pliant lyricism that pours from his violin, and few violinists can rival his spinning of a lighter-than-air scherzando.”
New Zealand Herald, August 2009
“…a distinguished reading of a great violin concerto…Ning Feng, winner of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in 2005 and winner of the Paganini competition since then, is blessed with a fantastic technique and a luxurously rich and flowing tone. His performance of the Dvorak,Violin Concerto showed he is also a truly intuitive musician. Playing Dvorak, particularly the unstoppable high spirits of the last movement, with the same panache with which he tackles Paganini.
He played as encore a cantabile that, with bowed melody and pizzicato accompaniment, created the unbelievable effect of two players, as though he were accompanying himself on the guitar. Just to watch the orchestral violinists' faces as he played told the non-violinists among us what impossible miracles he was so calmly tossing off. Ning is a master showman, and he's a musician as well.”
The Listener (New Zealand), September 2008
‘Hello Mr Paganini’ (album)
Ning Feng (violin), Thomas Hoppe (piano)
“Ning Feng is featured on the Dutch Channel Classics’ new label devoted to the music and musicians of China, and reveals a player of stunning accomplishment. The Paganini pieces might be musically a bit insubstantial, but they are all designed to show off a master player, and Ning Feng stands out, even in an age full of dazzling young string players. His virtuosity is breathtaking but he also possesses a real sense for the poetic, and he makes a wonderfully pure sound as well. His accompanist Thomas Hoppe abets him, when needed, with real style and the recording, made in Eindhoven, is almost holgraphically realistic. Five stars.”
Dominion Post, August 2008
“The music on this disc Hello Mr Paganini some of the most difficult ever written for violin, is not played easily, and even less played with conviction. Ning does both, and with a sort of insouciant arrogance that speaks not only of ability but of empathy with the composer as well. According to the notes, he wishes us to “sing along” and not simply be amazed by the wizardry that Paganini infused into this music, devilish or not. …I remain convinced that only a violinist who actually loves this music—aside from just being intimidated by it or finding it challenging—could put across the melodic emphasis with such grace and airiness without focusing so much on the difficulties of the formal technique involved.”
Audiophile Audition, February 2008
“It's no surprise to learn that Ning Feng was the winner of the 2006 International Paganini Competition in Genoa; he's able to bring the great virtuoso's most extreme flights of fancy to life with exceptional beauxty and precision. The left hand pizzicati are uncommonly clear, even and rhythmic, and the notorious double harmonics are not only pure in tuning and tone quality, but sensitively and expressively phrased, too. Performed with this degree of finesse, Paganini's music takes on a surreal quality - a dreamlike extension of more normal ranges of expression… It's an enthralling, exciting recital.”
Gramophone
“Phrase by phrase, against Houstoun's limpid keyboard, Ning was the soul of elegance...
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.”
Zealand Herald, June 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.”
New Zealand Herald, June 2007