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.
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.
A truly versatile artist, 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.
As a member of the piano trio, together with Ms Agata Lukasiewicz (piano) and Mr Mikolaj Konopelski (cello) he received the first prize in the 15 International Chamber Music Competition in Thessaloniki (Greece, 2005).
