Photo Credit: M. Holler

American/New Zealand 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 also Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition, the 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.

In 2023, Geneva made her BBC Proms debut in the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jaime Martin. Additional collaborations have included the BBC Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras, the San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmonica de Minas Gerais, Atlanta Symphony, Kremerata Baltica, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The 2026-27 season includes returns to the Indianapolis Symphony and the Austin Symphony, as well as debuts with the Deutsches Symphonies-Orchester Berlin, SNG Maribor Symphony Orchestra, South Carolina Philharmonic, and New Mexico Philharmonic.
Deeply passionate about chamber music, Geneva has had the pleasure of collaborating with prominent musicians such as Jonathan Biss, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida. This season’s projects include Bach’s Goldberg Variations with Emma Wernig and Jay Campbell, as well as a baroque trio program with Jonathan Cohen and Jay Campbell. Geneva is a regular participant at festivals and chamber music series such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Cleveland Chamberfest, and Spoleto Festival USA.

Committed to collaborating with living composers, Geneva has premiered works by Reena Esmail, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and John Zorn. Upcoming projects include the world premiere of New Zealand composer Salina Fisher’s violin concerto, presented in collaboration with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

Geneva received her Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory as the recipient of the Charlotte F. Rabb Presidential Scholarship, studying with Miriam Fried, and went on to study with Professor Mihaela Martin in the Professional Studies Program at the Kronberg Academy. Before that, she studied with Aimée Kreston at the Colburn School of Performing Arts.
Geneva currently performs on a composite violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, c.1776, generously on loan from a Charitable Trust.