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Title
Ragin Wenk-Wolff - Professional Violinist
Description
About Ragin
Ragin (RAH-gheen) Wenk-Wolff enjoys an extraordinary career. She began playing the violin at age 11, and started studies with her first professional teacher at age 13. Only one year later, at the age of 14, she performed Mozart's G Major Violin Concerto with her own cadenzas, and since then she has regularly been a soloist with all the Norwegian symphony orchestras, including the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bergen Symphony Orchestra, and the Norwegian Broadcast Orchestra. She received much acclaim for her performance with orchestra of the Vieuxtemps "Ballade & Polonaise" which was broadcast on Norwegian Television and BBC Radio 3 in England.
Her remarkable playing and mature and moving interpretation of works such as Mozart's haunting Sinfonia Concertante instantly brought her to the forefront among Norwegian artists. At 17, she made her official debut in Oslo, which caused a sensation, and for which she won the Norwegian Debut Prize. In October 1984 she had her very successful London debut at the Purcell Room (South Bank) and the same month gave a recital in Paris in conjunction with an exhibition of her own drawings.
Having soloed with such orchestras as Het Gelders Orchestra in Holland and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in Denmark, Ragin was in 1986 invited to record with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. She has recorded for Centaur Records, Aurora, Phillips, Varese International, NOPA, and NKF, and she broadcasts regularly on television and radio in Scandinavia and has been featured on WQXR-New York and WFMT-Chicago. Her busy international commitments have included regular solo appearances at prestigious music festivals such as Bergen, Elverum and Janacek, as well as concerto performances and recitals in England, France, Holland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, the Czech Republic, and all over the United States. Among the conductors Ragin has worked with are Karsten Andersen, Moshe Atzmon, Dennis Burkh, Per Dreier, Leo Driehuys, Oivin Fjeldstad, Dmitri Kitayenko, Ole Schmidt, Bryden Thomson, Harold Weller and Thomas Wellin. She gives master classes at major universities whenever time permits.
