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 début with the Bergen Philharmonic orchestra at the age of eleven. After winning various international competitions and prizes at the age of eighteen, she received an abundance 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 and Bartók to Tan Dun. Throughout eight years of fruitful collaboration, Eldbjørg Hemsing has premièred five new compositions by Tan Dun and worked on numerous projects with him in both Asia and Europe.
2018 saw the release of Eldbjørg Hemsing’s début recording on BIS, featuring violin concertos by Hjalmar Borgström and Dmitri Shostakovich. Reviewing the disc, the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote ‘the young violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, with compellingly fresh articulation, has unearthed the three-movement violin concerto of Borgström and recorded it with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Olari Elts – not just a noble pioneering achievement, but one that is as attractive violinistically as it is musically.’ The Strad magazine commented: ‘It is a gorgeous, open-hearted piece, full of flowing lyricism, to which she brings warm and beautiful playing. Her phrasing is supple and nuanced, flecked with neat little touches of vibrato and variations of dynamic…’
Hemsing’s second recording on BIS contained Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and Suk’s Fantasy and Love Song with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Alan Buribayev. She is also the subject of a documentary film directed by David Donnelly, focusing on women in classical music.
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.
For further information please visit Eldbjørg Hemsing's website.
