Eldbjørg Hemsing

Violin

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

Highly acclaimed for both her “breathtaking virtuosity and tenderness” (Expressen, 2024), Eldbjørg Hemsing is committed to bringing her art form to new and emerging audiences across the globe. Her international career took off quickly, leading to four award-winning albums and world premières of numerous compositions in many of the greatest halls of the world.

The 2024/25 season sees her appear with Taipei Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé with Kahchun Wong, Orchestra of St. Luke’s at David Geffen Hall in New York, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, and returns to long term partners such as Oslo Philharmonic and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. Recitals and chamber music programmes take her to Bechstein Hall in London, Dvořák Prague Festival and Schwetzinger Festspiele.

Recent highlights include performances of Anders Hillborg’s Violin Concerto No.2 with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Rolf Wallin’s Whirld with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Andris Poga, and collaborations with orchestras such as Orchestre National d’Île de France, Oslo Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra with Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and performances at Cartagena Festival. Recital and chamber music programmes led her to Heidelberger Frühling Festival and Dresden Music Festival, Bærum in Norway, and to the US. Eldbjørg Hemsing regularly collaborates with orchestras such as Bergen Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Shanghai and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras, and is a welcomed guest at prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center New York, Kennedy Center Washington, Wigmore Hall, Verbier Festival and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

She has also performed at numerous major global events and venues such as the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, United Nations, Shanghai Expo, and the UN Security Council. She has developed a close collaboration with the composer Tan Dun with whom she has premiered, toured, and recorded several award-winning works. She is a passionate speaker on the power of classical music beyond its traditional borders.

Eldbjørg Hemsing’s second album on Sony Classical with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen was released in August 2024. It features Anders Hillborg’s Violin Concerto No.2, and Kväll for violin and soprano. Her first album on Sony Classical with Arctic Philharmonic and Christian Kluxen, Arctic, was released in February 2023 and is devoted to the rich natural soundscapes of the Arctic. After an astonishing five nominations, the album gained her an Opus Klassik Award in the category ‘Classic without Limits’. Her current discography of critically acclaimed recordings includes an album of Grieg’s violin sonatas on BIS, which won the Spellemann Prize in Norway as Recording of the Year 2020. Her second album, Fire Ritual, centers around Tan Dun’s Violin Concerto, composed for and premiered by Eldbjørg Hemsing, and her debut album in 2018 featured Hjalmar Borgström’s Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1, recorded with the Wiener Symphoniker and Olari Elts.

Hemsing is actively involved in a multitude of projects, all rooted in her passionate interest to bring classical music to a more mainstream audience. As Senior Artistic Advisor of the prestigious global research firm Advisory Board for the Arts, she spearheads ventures to bring transformative thinking to arts organisations and artists. She co-founded the Hemsing Festival and is the Artistic Director of the SPIRE, an innovative annual competition to promote and nurture young artists in their artistic and personal self-development in the classical music world.

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

HarrisonParrott represents Eldbjørg Hemsing for worldwide general management.

Gallery

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 is a subtle and sensitive performer, who can pull sound out of silence, creating a sense of magic through her warm and gentle tones, and then be able to build upon them to create a sweeping majestic sound panoply.”

The Boston Musical Intelligencer, July 2023

“The maiden voyage between Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing and Sony Classical, ‘Arctic’ is the finest new classical recording of the last five years.”

Broadway World, July 2023

“[Hemsing] made it sound exquisitely melodious, forcing one to listen as if one had never heard it before.”

Lark Reviews, June 2023

“Hemsing’s compilation of pieces makes for a fabulous listen.”

WQXR, March 2023

“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)