©Photo: Nikolai Lund

Eldbjørg Hemsing

Violin

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“It becomes more than clear that Eldbjørg Hemsing is the real thing.”
(NRK, May 2020)

A champion of Norway’s rich musical tradition, Eldbjørg Hemsing has made herself a name in her native country since her solo debut with the Bergen Philharmonic at the age of 11. Today she counts amongst the leading violinists of the younger generation.

This season will see her perform with orchestras such as Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra and Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of past seasons include performances with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in the opening concert of the Bergen International Music Festival 2020 and with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Zürcher Kammerorchester, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. She performed the Chinese, Swiss, Canadian and German premieres of the forgotten Borgstrøm violin concerto which she has rediscovered. It has since become her strong mission to bring the concerto back to the world’s stages.

In March 2018, Eldbjørg Hemsing released her debut CD on the Swedish label BIS featuring violin concertos by Hjalmar Borgstrøm and Dmitri Shostakovich, recorded with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Olari Elis. Released in March 2020, her latest recording – Grieg’s Sonatas on BIS – has garnered a chorus of praise by critics.

Eldbjørg Hemsing masters a wide range of repertoire from Bach, Beethoven and Bartók to Tan Dun. The collaboration with Tan Dun resulted in many performances in Europe and Asia. Eldbjørg Hemsing premiered and recorded Tan Dun’s new violin concerto Fire Ritual – A Musical Ritual for Victims of Wars with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

A passionate chamber musician, recitals will take Eldbjørg to Mozartwoche Salzburg, Dialoge Festival Salzburg, Musikwoche Bad Berleburg and her own Hemsing festival. Highlights of past seasons include recitals at National Center for Performing Arts in Bejing, Dresdner Musikfestspiele and Verbier Festival amongst others.

In addition to a busy performance schedule, Eldbjørg Hemsing is actively involved in societal projects. She acts as ambassador for the music education project CJD Panorama in Germany and regularly collaborates with W20 Network as well as several international art focused conferences such as the Abu Dhabi Culture Summit and the Nordic Arts & Audience conference amongst others. As Artistic Director and mentor in the SPIRE programme she follows her passion in supporting young talents in their artistic and personal self-development in the classical music world.

Born in Valdres, Norway, Eldbjørg Hemsing started playing the violin at the age of five and studied at the prestigious Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo as well as with the renowned Professor Boris Kuschnir in Vienna.She plays a 1707 Antonio Stradivari ‘Rivaz, Baron Gutmann’ violin, on loan from the Dextra Musica Foundation.

Anders Hillborg Violin Concerto No. 2, conducted by Christian Karlsen. © Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

Eldbjørg Hemsing - Tan Dun: Fire Ritual (Promo trailer) © Eldbjørg Hemsing

Eldbjørg Hemsing - Borgström violin concerto and Shostakovich violin concerto no. 1 (BIS records) © Eldbjørg Hemsing

Eldbjørg Hemsing – Grieg: Violin Sonatas with Simon Trpčeski (Promo trailer) © Eldbjørg Hemsing

“Hemsing and Trpčeski present a fine performance with a narrative character: the music takes a descriptive, almost visual quality, thanks to their striking musicality.”

(The Classic Review, March 2020)

“The violin tone of the young Norwegian Eldbjørg Hemsing has something spacious, immediate, unseen, nothing pretentious about it … [Eldbjørg] plays so brilliantly and convincingly in her “mother tongue” that it must captivate everyone. ”

(Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 2020)

“Playing with remarkable lyricism and eloquence, Hemsing was the perfect advocate for this concerto, a work of late-romanticism tinged, here and there, with the harmonic colour of the era of Richard Strauss and Debussy.”

(Calgary Herald, January 2020)

“The brilliant soloist Ms. Eldbjørg Hemsing brought the music to life, articulating each note with precision and richly dynamic expression.”

(Broadway World, Dec. 2019)

“While some of Tan Dun’s ideas may seem rather overextended at times…what comes across most powerfully here is the dynamic three-way synergetic split between Tan Dun as conductor, Eldbjørg Hemsing’s striking characterisation of the solo violin’s material, and the sheer force and power of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Recommended.“

(Grammophone, April 2019)

“A splendid combination of purity and sweeping, Heifetz-like intensity.”

(The Strad, 2018)