Geneva Lewis

Bio

New Zealand-born violinist Geneva Lewis has forged a reputation as a musician of consummate artistry whose performances speak from and to the heart and who has been lauded for the “remarkable mastery of her instrument” (CVNC) and hailed as “clearly one to watch” (Musical America).

Named a BBC New Generation Artist (2022-24), Geneva is also the recipient of a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She was Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition, winner of the Kronberg Academy’s Prince of Hesse Prize (2021), Musical America’s New Artist of the Month (June 2021), a Performance Today Young Artist-in-Residence and a YCAT Concordia Artist.

August 2023 sees Geneva’s BBC Proms debut, with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jaime Martin, while the 2023-24 season includes further performances with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and debuts with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Kremerata Baltica, where she performs Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No.1 alongside Gidon Kremer, as well as Knoxville Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony and Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco.

Deeply passionate about chamber music, Geneva has had the pleasure of collaborating with prominent musicians such as Jonathan Biss, Glenn Dicterow, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, Marcy Rosen, Sir András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida; she has performed in venues and festivals such as London’s Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Marlboro Music Festival, Kronberg Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Ravinia and Chamberfest Cleveland.

An advocate of community engagement and music education, Geneva was selected for New England Conservatory’s Community Performances and Partnerships Program’s Ensemble Fellowship, through which her string quartet created interactive educational programs for audiences throughout Boston. The quartet was also chosen for the Virginia Arts Festival Residency, during which they performed and presented masterclasses in elementary, middle, and high schools.

Geneva received her Artist Diploma from New England Conservatory as the recipient of the Charlotte F. Rabb Presidential Scholarship, studying with Miriam Fried. Prior to that, she studied with Aimée Kreston at Colburn School of Performing Arts. Past summers have taken her to Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Steans Institute, Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Workshop, International Holland Music Sessions, Taos School of Music and Heifetz International Music Institute. She is currently studying at Kronberg Academy with Professor Mihaela Martin.

Geneva currently performs on a composite violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, c. 1776 generously on loan from a Charitable Trust.