In Qingdao the fall is definitely the high season for music performances and festivals. During the fall Qingdao plays host to numerous music festivals, among them the Qingdao Music Festival. The festival has been held every year since 2005 and lasts for a whole month. During this time both foreign and local orchestras and musicians give performances. Concerts are in addition also held in different public squares all around the city.
Norwegian violinist Catharina Chen will have the honour to participate in the opening of the festival. She will together with the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, directed by Eduard Schiemder, play Tchaikovsky’s concert for violin.
Catharina Chen was born 1985 in Oslo Norway. She started playing the violin at the age of five with her father. Later she studied with Alf Richard Kraggerud and Stephan Barratt-Due as young talent student in Barratt -Due Music Institute. Since 2004 she has received full scholarship and graduated in SMU Dallas with certificate of Artist Performance. Currently she is a student of Tempel University - Boyer College of Music in Philadelphia where she is studying for her Master's degree, with Professor Eduard Schmieder.
She has previously played as a soloist together with Oslo Philharmonics, Bergen Philharmonics, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Beverly Hills Symphony Orchestra among others.