Evening Mini Concert and Conversation with ELDBJORG HEMSING, Violinist
Drinks Reception 6:30pm
Mini-Concert & Conversation 7:00pm
Close 8:15pm

Violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing in celebration of her release of a recording with works by the internationally acclaimed, Oscar and Grammy winning composer Tan Dun, presents a solo violin recital and lecture about the rich cultural heritage of her native Norway. Through the works for the Norwegian folk violin “Hardanger Fiddle”, which Eldbjørg Hemsing also introduced to the composing master, to the works by the greatest music heroes and the story of how the cultural heritage has been inspiring the compositions. Eldbjørg Hemsing takes the audiences on a journey from the Northern Europe to China, where the collaboration with each and one of them coming from a very different legacy of folk impulses, yet settling a ground for flourishing artistic collaboration.

A champion of Norway's rich musical tradition, Eldbjørg Hemsing has been a household name in her native country since childhood and made her solo debut with the Bergen Philharmonic at the age of 11. After winning various international competitions and prizes at the age of 18, she received a flood of invitations to perform but decided instead to travel to Vienna for further intensive studies with Boris Kuschnir, during which time she fine-tuned her performance-style and absorbed a wide-range of repertoire ranging from Bach, Beethoven, Bartok to Tan Dun. Together with Tan Dun she has collaborated on numerous projects in both Europe and Asia and has most recently premiered composer’s new violin concerto “Fire Ritual — A Musical Ritual for Victims of Wars”, together with the Oslo Philharmonic. In March 2018 Eldbjørg Hemsing released her debut CD on the Swedish label, BIS, featuring violin concertos by Hjalmar Borgström and Dmitri Shostakovich, recorded with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Olari Elis. Eldbjørg Hemsing plays a 1754 G. B. Guadagnini violin on kind loan from the Dextra Musica Foundation. Her long-term artistic development is generously supported by Göhde Foundation.

Critic and journalist Ken Smith has covered music on five continents for wide range of media. He currently divides his time between New York and Hong Kong, where he is the Asian performing arts critic for the Financial Times. For more than 10 years he covered New York for The Strad magazine, the London-based bible of professional and amateur string playing. A winner of the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music writing, he is a former house annotator for New York’s 92nd Street Y and has written program notes for Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, Lincoln and Kennedy Centers, the BBC Proms and the Barbican Centre. His liner notes have appeared on recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Bis, Ondine, Naxos and others. A regular arts commentator on RTHK Radio 4’s “Morning Call,” he is the author of Fate! Luck! Chance!...the Making of The Bonesetter’s Daughter Opera. Two collections of his writings about music have been translated and published by Beijing Normal University Press. (Moderator)