At the age of 14, Johannes Søe Hansen (b. 1965) won the Gold Medal in the Berlingske Tidende Music Competition. Four years later he was a prizewinner in the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. He trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen with Professor Milan Vitek. In 1988 he was awarded the ‘major’ Jacob Gade Grant and the ‘minor’ Sonning Prize, enabling him to study in Bern with Professor Igor Ozim. Johannes Søe Hansen made his debut as a soloist in 1990 after studies with Marta Libalova, and the next year he won the Young Soloist Competition. As a soloist, he has played with all the Danish symphony orchestras, as well as several of the other Nordic orchestras and the St. Peters-burg Philharmonic. In 1992 he was engaged as leader of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, a post in which he has continued since. He has had an important parallel career as a chamber musician with concerts in Salzburg, London, Paris, Nuuk, The United Arab Emirates, Tokyo and New York with the string sextet Copenhagen Classic. Johannes Søe Hansen is also a member of the Arild Quartet and the Stadler Quintet. He has recorded for labels like EMI, CPO, Classico and Dacapo.