Watch: Hannah Fang’s Video Session at The 13th Floor

Check this out! Hannah Fang performs three songs here at our 13th Floor Studio.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Chinese/Kiwi violinist Hannah Fang performed her show in Auckland (Click here to read the review and view photos).

Just prior to that show Hannah stopped by The 13th Floor Studio to chat to Marty Duda and to play a few tunes. Now, that Video Session is ready for your eyes…the question is, are your eyes ready for Hannah?

Find Hannah on Spotify / Apple Music / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube

Here’s more info on Hannah from her peeps:

Hannah (Heng) Fang 方恒  has been playing the violin since she was 3.

Born in Shan Tou,China, to a violin craftsman, Hannah was encouraged to play the violin from the time she could hold it.

Her name, Hannah, Heng in Chinese, means to keep trying, to have patience.

“My father named me before I was born and my name pretty much means keep playing the violin for your whole life. That is my name”.

Once she turned 6, she was set to studying the instrument,  “This is when it became serious, playing hard and practising a lot. 

Then at 10 years old, I was taken out of school so I could practise for six hours a day.”At 10 years old, she was sent to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music,

studying violin all day and completing her schoolwork in the evenings.  Hannah says it was lonely, ”I didn’t have friends apart from other kids that studied music. I just practised. That’s what I did.”

Then, as a teenager, her father died. His sudden death became a turning point for Hannah, she began feel her music differently, hearing the violin’s voice.

“My father’s dream was not only for me to be a concert violinist, but for me to hold my own concerts. When I was 10 years old, the day I left home to study in Shanghai, he wrote a letter to me, talking about this dream, and when he died, I was broken, but the violin made me feel stronger and braver.  It gave me purpose to carry his dream and to make it become one with mine.  Now I can make the dream come true for him, that’s why I leave an empty seat at every show, for my father.

Years of touring with orchestras around the world, have lead Hannah to find her place on stage. She has played as a soloist for orchestras in Thailand and Belgium, and showcased with others in over 40 countries.

“I love to perform. I feel very moved by the music, at first for myself, and then knowing I have the ability to move other people.”

As well as performing, Hannah also has a passion for teaching, but with a more enjoyable and engaging element than the journey she went through as child.

She founded the Fang Heng Violin Studio and also became a lecturer at the Guang Zhou Xing Hai Conservatory of Music.

“It has to be fun for children, otherwise it is not interesting for them.” One of the ways she does this, is to use an electric violin, stepping out of the  classical realm, composing her own music with a modern twist and rearranging modern music to suit her traditional instrument.

“It’s getting the music to younger people as well, mixing in things that they know.”

Hannah composes in her head, “I write it in my head, play it and then remember it. “I get bored with just covering other people’s music, I want to make new music, my own music. I want to create something.”

Hannah settled in Palmerston North in 2016 after visiting her brother and falling in love with the “big, beautiful skies”.

She connected quickly with local musicians, and with their help, recorded an EP “Not All Me” at The Stomach. “Not All Me”, explores Hannah’s love of contemporary violin.

Now based in Auckland, Hannah has 2 children, but is adamant that although they love listening and watching her play, if they don’t want to play, they don’t have to.

“I want them to have the childhood I didn’t have. My daughter always talks to me  in music. She sings to me, she composes and she dances. 

That’s just her. I am not a pushy mother. I just want my children to enjoy their lives and do whatever they want to.”

Hannah has collaborated with artists from many different genres and her shows reflect her love of bringing the violin in to classical pop, Hip hop, rock metal rock, electronic, drum and bass, and dubstep.

Hannah found the calling her father had wanted for her and has created music and a performance all her own.