Svend Rønning is Chair of the String Division at Pacific Lutheran University and Associate Professor of Music.
Dr.
Rønning is a native of the Pacific Northwest and holds his own
undergraduate degree in violin performance from
PLU, which he earned in
1989. He subsequently earned a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from
Yale University.
He is of the
most active violinists in the region, serving as Concertmaster of the
Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, violinist of the Regency String Quartet, violinist of the Puget Sound Consort as well as frequent soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and recording artist. Dr.
Rønning is also Artistic Director of the
Second City Chamber Series, Tacoma's award winning producer of chamber music concerts and chamber music educational programs.
Svend Rønning has appeared in venues around the world, including the
Aspen, Eastern, Harkness, Jerusalem, Methow, Pacific, Rhode Island,
Spoleto and
Wintergreen Music Festivals and has served as Concertmaster of various
orchestras including the Charlottesville Symphony, the San Jose
Symphony, and the Spoleto U.S.A. Chamber Orchestra. As soloist,
he has appeared with numerous orchestras, including the Charlottesville
Symphony, the Prague Radio Symphony, Orchestra Seattle, and the Tacoma
Symphony. Chamber music appearances include the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, the Mostly Nordic Chamber Series, the Washington State Governor's Mansion Chamber Series, the Methow Music Festival, and Chamber Concerts for the Eastern Music Festival, Wintergreen Music Festival and Second City Chamber Series.
Recent solo and chamber engagements include concerts in Ithaca, New York, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, Norway, Hungary, and Australia. Svend Rønning's prior teaching appointments have included faculty positions at the Eastern Music Festival, the Shenandoah Conservatory, and the University of Virginia.
Dr.
Rønning's teachers include Syoko Aki, Sidney Harth, Jaap
Schroeder,
and Ann Tremaine. His own students have gone on to other music
programs at Indiana University, the North Carolina School for the Arts,
Western Washington University, the University of Virginia, the
Manhattan School of Music, and the Yale School of Music as well as a Fulbright Fellowship. Several
students now occupy positions in such organizations as the Virginia
Symphony, the Lexington Philharmonic, the Roanoke Symphony and the
Tacoma Symphony as well as holding music faculty positions at Centre College
and Ashbury College. Others teach Music in public and private
schools around the country while many others are employed in diverse non-music careers from
Film Direction to Law to Medicine.
