Svend Rønning

Chair, Stringed Instruments; Applied Violin Lessons; Director String Kaleidoscope, Member Regency String Quartet

Violinist Svend Rønning enjoys a distinguished career as an artistic director, chamber musician, concertmaster, educator, and soloist. He serves as Professor of Music and Coordinator of String Studies at Pacific Lutheran University, where he is also a member of the International Honors (IHON) faculty. His previous teaching appointments include the Eastern Music Festival, Shenandoah Conservatory, and the University of Virginia. One of the Pacific Northwest’s most active performers, Dr. Rønning is Concertmaster of Symphony Tacoma and Artistic Director of the Second City Chamber Series, Tacoma’s award-winning presenter of chamber music concerts and educational programs. His performance activity also extends to early music, including work on period instruments with the Puget Sound Consort.

As a performer, Dr. Rønning has appeared at major venues and festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto U.S.A., Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Jerusalem Winter Classics, and the Wintergreen Music Festival. He has served as Concertmaster of the San Jose Symphony, Spoleto U.S.A. Chamber Orchestra, Charlottesville Symphony, and Tacoma Opera Orchestra, and has appeared as soloist with the Prague Radio Symphony, Arctic Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Tacoma, Orchestra Seattle, and numerous regional ensembles. His solo repertoire encompasses both the established canon and works by Alban Berg, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklós Rózsa, as well as concertos composed expressly for him by Jerry Kracht and Walter Ross.

An active chamber musician, Dr. Rønning has performed in concert series and festivals across the United States and abroad, including Berlin’s Leo Kestenberg Musikschule, the Methow Music Festival, the Mostly Nordic Chamber Series in Seattle, and the Washington State Governor’s Mansion Chamber Series. He has appeared in residencies at major universities and conservatories worldwide and has taught at the University of Oxford as part of PLU’s IHON–Oxford study abroad program.

Dr. Rønning’s teaching has produced a studio of distinguished alumni whose careers reflect his broad and rigorous musical vision. His former students have pursued advanced studies at leading institutions such as Indiana University, DePaul University, the Yale School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, the University of Washington, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. They hold positions in professional ensembles including the Virginia Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, Roanoke Symphony, and Symphony Tacoma, and serve on the faculties of universities and schools throughout North America. Others have applied their musical training to diverse disciplines such as film, arts administration, law, medicine, and urban planning.

Reflecting on his pedagogical philosophy, Dr. Rønning notes, “I’m deeply proud of the students who have come through my studio and now carry our shared musical values into the world—whether as orchestral musicians, educators, or creative professionals in fields as varied as law, medicine, and the arts. The PLU community is an ideal place to pursue music passionately, professionally, or both, and I admire my students who do so much through music to shape the lives and communities of the future.”

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Rønning holds degrees from Pacific Lutheran University and Yale University, where he studied with Syoko Aki, Sidney Harth, Jaap Schröder, and Ann Tremaine.

Svend Rønning on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ViolinAxioms