Ning
Kam was born in Singapore and began studying the
violin at age six with her father, violinist and composer, Kam Kee Yong. In
1987 she received scholarships from the Lee and Shaw Foundations of Singapore
to enter the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey, UK where she studied with
Maurizio Fuks, Wen Zhou Li and the late Sidney Griller. In 1993 she entered the
Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia to study with Jaime Laredo and Yumi
Scott and received her Bachelor Degree there. She then went on to study with
Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music where she received her
Masters of Music Degree and an Artist Diploma.
In 1991, Ning won First Prize in the junior
section of the Folkestone Menuhin International Violin Competition, she was a
prizewinner at the Third International Pablo Sarasate Violin Competition in
Pamplona in 1995, a finalist in the 2000 Henryk Szeryng Career Awards,
culminating in winning Second Prize "Prix du Gouvernement Fédérale Belge
Eugène Ysaye" at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium in
2001. Hailed by De Standaard as "manifestly the best violinist of the
competition" she also won the Flemish Radio and Television Audience Prize
there. The Strad Magazine praised her as a "strong artistic
personality". Ms. Kam has also been honoured by the National Arts Council
of Singapore with the Young Artist Award, presented in 2000 to a young artist
of extraordinary talent. She has been featured on the documentary
"Portrait of the Artist" on SBC, Singapore, and has been broadcast on
SBC Radio Singapore as well as on CBC Radio Canada's "Music Around
Us" Series at the Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto. In October 2002, Ning was
invited to perform at the National Inauguration of the Esplanade Theatres on
the Bay Concert Hall in Singapore, where she partnered Sarah Chang in Bach's
double violin concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lan
Shui. This occasion was graced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore.
She was invited as an honouraree at the President's Command Performance in
April 2009 where she performed her own arrangement of John Newton's
"Amazing Grace".
Ning Kam has given many concerts in Europe,
Singapore, Canada and the United States. She has performed at the Menuhin Music
Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland. In 1988 she appeared on BBC's Blue Peter,
where she played to a television audience of seven million. In that same year,
she performed the Mendelssohn Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall, with the
Wren Orchestra. Since then she has appeared with the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, National
Orchestra of Belgium, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Flemish Radio Orchestra,
City of London Sinfonia, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and the
Singapore Symphony Orchestra. As an active chamber musician, she participated
at the prestigious Ravinia Festival at the Steans Institute for Young Artists
2000.
Ning released her first CD in 1997,
featuring the works of Enesco, Sarasate, her father, Kam Kee Yong as well as
transcriptions by Heifetz. Most recent releases are a CD dedicated to the music
of the Americas entitled "Transatlantic", and a recording,
"Cicada", dedicated solely to the music of Kam Kee Yong. American
Record Guide has praised "Transatlantic" as "energetic and
virtuosic" as well as having "humour, lightness and strength".
ClassicsToday.com has called Kam's playing "stunning" and
"fiendish" and a 10/10 was given by the Belgian music magazine
"Crescendo" for this original recording. Ning released her debut
recording with orchestra of the August De Boeck Violin Concerto with the
Flemish Radio Orchestra conducted by Marc Soustrot, under the Etcetera label.
Other releases in 2008 also include the chamber music of Alexander Goehr on the
Meridian Records label, where Ning performs as part of the Chiron Trio with
pianist Daniel Becker and cellist, Thomas Carroll.
Ning has performed in concerts all over the
world with the Singapore Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Hong Kong
Sinfonietta, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Flemish Radio
Orchestra, Flemish Symphony Orchestra, Brussels National Orchestra, Liege Philharmonic,
Shenzhen Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Helsinki Philharmonic
Orchestra. As an artist who has great interest in championing contemporary
music, Ning Kam gave the world-premiere of Claude Ledoux's "Frissons
D'Aile", a concerto for violin and orchestra dedicated to Ning and
commissioned by the Liege Philharmonic. In January 2005, she performed with
pianist, Daniel Becker at London's Purcell Room in the Park Lane Group Series
for Young Artists featuring contemporary music. This concert was reviewed by
the London Times as "gutsy and electrifying". The Telegraph also
described Ning as a violinist with "much flair plus a totally confident
stage presence and an absolute command of the music" and that the
performance had "thrilling energy and control". She has also been
invited to broadcast on the BBC Radio 3 programme, "In Tune" in
January 2005 and made her successful Wigmore Hall debut in May 2006 with
British pianist, Carole Presland, as part of the Park Lane Group Series.
Concerts in the 2007-2008 season included appearances with the Singapore
Symphony Orchestra, Klassische Filharmonie Bonn, Flemish Radio Orchestra, as
well as recitals in Taiwan, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the USA. Special
projects that season included a Taiwan concert tour with percussionist, Francis
Kam in a ground-breaking violin and drums programme. The 2008-2009 season
included her debuts with the Phoenix and Tucson Symphony Orchestras as well as
recitals and chamber music as part of the Concerts du Midi series at the Musee
Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, at Kings Place, London and at the Ulverston
Festival, UK. Ning also made her leading and directing debut with the Het
Kamerorkest Brugge in Belgium in 2009
and has returned every season since as leader and director of Het Kamerorkest
Brugge. 2010 also saw Ning's China debut with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra
with whom she will return in the 2011-2012 season with conductor, Christian
Ehwald.
Beginning in September 2011, Ning will
commence in her role as the new Artistic Director of Het Kamerorkest
Brugge. Other engagements in the
2011/2012 season include a return with the Symfonieorkest van Vlaanderen with
conductor, Guy van Waas as well as a new recording with pianist, Albert Tiu,
under the Meridian Records, UK label.
More information at www.ningkam.com