FENG NING Feng Ning was born in Chengdu, China in 1981. He started learning the violin with private teacher Youxin Wen at the age of four, giving his first performance the following year. In 1992 he went to the High School of Sichuan Conservatoire of Music and studied with Prof. Weimin Hu. During six years study in the conservatoire, he was selected to take part in Summer Schools Workshops in the U.K and Canada. Also in 1997, he won the Grand Prize and the First Prize for violin in the 5th International Art Competition for High School Students in Takasaki, Japan, and was invited by the Competition Committee to perform in Tokyo and made a recording for JVC Victor Record. In Sep.1998, Feng Ning went to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Prof. Hu Kun. In Feb.1999, after the master class, he was invited by late Lord. Menuhin to perform in Germany. In the same year, he got the "Association Damson Francois-Scarbo" Prize in the International Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. In April 2000, he came second in the Folkestone Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinist. One week after, he won the Royal Philharmonic Society, "Emily Anderson Prize". In Feb 2001, he got the "The Friends of the Royal Academy of Music, Wigmore Award" and had his Wigmore recital debut on the 4th of June, 2001. In May 2001, he finished 5th in the International Queen Elisabeth Music Competition (Violin) in Belgium. Two month later, he won the First Prize in The London Oratory Festival & International Violin Competition. And in year 2002, he was awarded the "Emily English Scholarship" in London. In year 2003, he won the 3rd prize in the Hanover International Violin Competition. In June 2003, Feng Ning became the first student ever in the school history to get the full mark (100%) for the Final Recital (end of study exam) in the Royal Academy of Music. Currently, he is studying at the Hochschule fur Music "Hanns Eisler" Berlin with Prof. Antje Weithaas. Feng Ning has performed recitals and concerts in China, Canada, UK, Belgium, 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 etc. In June 2005 Ning Feng won the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in Auckland. THOMAS HOPPE Thomas Hoppe has during the last years built a reputation as exceptional pianist and outstanding collaborative artist. He performs frequently in Europe and the US, and maintains a demanding performance schedule. He has concertized with such artists as violinists - Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Annette von Hehn, Kristin Lee, Brian Lewis, Ning Feng, Saeka Matsuyama, Stefan Milenkovich, Gil Morgenstern, Yuri Namkung, Axel Strauss, Christoph Schickedanz, Janet Sung, Elisabeth Weber and Antje Weithaas cellists - Ani Aznavourian, Alexandre Chaushian, Evan Drachman, Andre Emelianoff, Stefan Heinemeyer, Paul Katz, Ronald Leonard, Markus Nyikos, Amit Peled and Jeff Ziegler singers - George Shirley, Shirley Verrett, Jennifer Aylmer, Dana Bhatnagar, Kathleen Flynn, Camilla Nylund, Angela Fout, Camille Zamorra and the late Makiko Narumi ... to name but a few. He has appeared at many prestigious halls, including Carnegie`s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kammersaal Philarmonie Berlin, Tsuda and Oji Halls Tokyo, Kentucky Center for the Arts, the Congress Center Hamburg, the Louvre in Paris and Lisinski Hall in Zagreb, Croatia. During the summers 2001-04 Hoppe was staff accompanist at the Perlman Music Festival at the invitation of Itzhak Perlman, whose entire violin studio Thomas accompanied at the Juilliard School of Music. Hoppe has played solo and chamber music recitals throughout the USA, in Austria, Germany, France, England, Czech Republic, Chile, Croatia, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, Ecuador and Japan. He has recorded for radio and television, and has been soloist with various orchestras, including the Mainzer Chamber Orchestra, the Ecuador National Sypmhony, the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and the University of Louisville Orchestra. A native of Bad Kreuznach, Germany, Thomas received early training at the Peter-Cornelius-Conservatory in Mainz from Agathe Wanek. In 1993, he came to the US to study with Lee Luvisi, under whose guidance he remained for 5 years. The first recipient of the Samuel Sanders Memorial Award at the Juilliard School of Music in 1999, he finished his graduate studies at this institution in 2001 with a diploma in collaborative arts. He continous his affiliation with Juilliard as a staff accompanist, and has worked for the studios of Dorothy Delay, Itzhak Perlman, Heidi Castleman, Toby Appel, Naoko Tanaka, Robert Mann, Joel Krosnick, Carol Wincenc and many others.
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