Feng Ning was born in Chengdu, China, where he started the violin at age four. He studied at the Sichuan Music Conservatory, and in 1998, was invited as a full scholarship student to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. There he participated in a master class with the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin, who invited him to perform in Germany at one of the last concerts he organized.
In June 2003, Feng Ning became the first student ever to be given a perfect score (100%) for his final recital (end of study exam) in the nearly 200 years of Royal Academy of Music history, and was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), an honour reserved for only those graduates who have achieved distinction in their profession.
In addition to numerous engagements in Europe and Asia, he returns this year to work with orchestras in Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland, and makes his debut with Alexander Lazarev in Perth. Invited back to Moscow by Vladimir Spivakov in 2009, Maestro Spivakov immediately extended a new invitation for a tour of Russia this year in the Northern Fall.
Feng Ning is based in Berlin, where he has just completed his studies with Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler". He plays a Peter Stefan Greiner violin (Bonn 2007).
Congratulations to Feng and cellist Ying. Feng proposed to Ying shortly after his Winner's Tour in New Zealand. In fact, the behind-the-scenes story is that Feng had been considering proposing for a while, and whilst he was in Wellington performing for the staff of Michael Hill Jewellers, the notion that he was surrounded by jewellers provided a bit of an impetus. A few quiet words to Michael and Christine Hill that night prompted a shopping trip the very next morning to purchase the perfect diamond ring. Not many brides would be able to say that Michael and Christine Hill helped select their engagement ring! 
2nd Place - Yvonne Lam (United States)
Winner of the silver medal at the 2005 Michael Hill World Violin Competition, Ms. Lam has also earned top prizes at the Liana Issakadze International Competition and the Holland-America Music Society Competition, Grand Prize in the Pasadena Instrumental Competition, First Prize in the Bronislaw Kaper Awards, the Arts Recognition and Talent Search festival (sponsored by the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts), and First Prize at the Donna Reed Foundation Competition. Furthermore, she won prizes for the Best Performance of a Commissioned Work at both the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and at the Michael Hill World Violin Competition.
In addition to serving as Assistant Concertmaster of the Washington National Opera Orchestra for three seasons, Ms. Lam is equally accomplished as a chamber musician, having performed with such distinguished chamber musicians such as Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, Anthony Marwood, Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Gil Kalish, and Fred Sherry. She performed the New York premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s quintet El Águila bicéfala in Juilliard’s Focus! Festival 2006, and presented a program of new chamber works at Juilliard and Harvard with the Juilliard Pierrot Ensemble in collaboration with Altavoz, a group of young Latin-American composers. She has toured with SONYC (String Orchestra of New York City) and performed with ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble). She toured Israel with her quartet, the Colburn Quartet, in which she was both first violinist and pianist, and will tour in 2010 with Musicians from Marlboro. She has performed in chamber music festivals such as Marlboro Music Festival, Music From Angel Fire, Ravinia Music Festival, Yellow Barn Music Festival, and Taos Music Festival.
A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Lam studied both piano and violin at the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Her violin teachers in Los Angeles included Alexander Treger, Laura Schmieder, Alice Schoenfeld, and Linda Rose; her piano teachers were Yohsuke Suga and Dr. Louise Lepley. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2005, where she studied with Victor Danchenko, and her Master’s degree in violin performance from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Robert Mann.
3rd Place - Bartosz Woroch (Polish)
"MHIVC was a special experience in my life and it began a chain of events which led me to where I am now."
"I am truly happy the Competition is ever evolving and has established itself as one of the most exciting and honest in the violin world."
Born in 1984 in Poznan, Poland, Bartosz Woroch studied with Marcin Baranowski at the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan and in 2008 was awarded a Swiss Government Scholarship to study in the class of Monika Urbaniak-Lisik at the Hochschule der Kunste Berne. In 2009 he entered the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he held a Fellowship and studied in the class of cellist Louise Hopkins. He was selected for representation by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2011.
As a concerto soloist Bartosz has appeared with the Czestochowa Philharmonic, Poznan Philharmonic, Silesian Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonic, the Bern Symphony and Polish Radio Orchestras. He has recorded for BBC Radio 3, Radio France and for Polish Radio where he recently gave the broadcast debut of Chausson's Concerto for violin, piano and strings with pianist Alasdair Beatson. His collaborations include working with Pekka Kuusisto, Nicholas Daniel, the Canadian ARC Ensemble, Louise Hopkins and Caroline Palmer and performing Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale at the Barbican conducted by Martyn Brabbins. In 2011 he undertook a residency in Banff, working with Henk Guittart.
Engagements during the 2011/12 season include recitals at Bridgewater Hall, Purcell Room, King's Place, Kettles Yard Cambridge and the Barbican on 10 January (Walton Piano Quartet) and 3 June (Mozart Sonatas). In 2012 Bartosz performs the Elgar Concerto and Berg Chamber Concerto.
At the age of 22 Bartosz was appointed Concertmaster to the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra. He left this position in 2008 to pursue his interest in solo and chamber music. As a chamber musician and member of the award winning Cappa Ensemble, he has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, Barbican, the Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels), Radio France Festival (Montpellier), the Edinburgh Fringe, Verbier and West Cork Chamber Music Festivals. Further afield he has toured New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. In 2009 he was a recipient of the Irish Music Network Scheme Award.
Bartosz is a laureate of the 2005 Michael Hill (New Zealand), 2003 Pablo Sarasate (Spain) and 2001 Takasaki (Japan) International Competitions. He worked with Ruggiero Ricci, Benjamin Schmid, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Viktoria Mullova and Alfred Brendel. In 2009 he became assistant to Monika Urbaniak-Lisik at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berne.
Bartosz Woroch is currently a violin professor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
