Austin Symphony to Open Peter Bay's Final Season with Brahms, Sibelius
Violinist Geneva Lewis returns to perform Brahms' Violin Concerto at The Long Center's Dell Hall.
Austin Symphony Orchestra is set to open its season with performances pairing Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto, featuring violinist Geneva Lewis, with Christopher Theofanidis' RAINBOW BODY and Jean Sibelius' Fifth Symphony. Conductor Peter Bay will lead the concerts at The Long Center's Dell Hall.
Event Details
Friday, September 11 at 8:00 p.m.
and
Sunday, September 13 at 2:00 p.m.
The Long Center's Dell Hall
Geneva Lewis, violin
Peter Bay, conductor
Tickets: https://my.austinsymphony.org/overview/1225
What's in the Program?
Theofanidis' Rainbow Body is composed in a single movement with a duration around 13 minutes. The melody of the piece is loosely based on 'Ave Maria, o auctrix vite' by the 12th-century composer Hildegard of Bingen. The composition was also inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist idea of rainbow body, wherein the body of an enlightened being is absorbed back into the universe upon their death.
Brahms' Violin Concerto, featuring Geneva Lewis, was composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to and premiered by his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. It is Brahms' only violin concerto, and, according to Joachim, one of the four great German violin concerti.
Sibelius' Fifth Symphony is a three movement work for orchestra written from 1914 to 1915 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The Finnish government commissioned Sibelius to write the symphony in honor of his 50th birthday, 8 December 1915, which had been declared a national holiday.
Geneva Lewis Returns to Austin Symphony Orchestra
The New Zealand-born violinist has forged a reputation as a musician of consummate artistry whose performances speak from the heart. Lauded for 'remarkable mastery of her instrument' (CVNC) and hailed as 'clearly one to watch' (Musical America), Geneva is the recipient of a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant and Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Additional accolades include Kronberg Academy's Prince of Hesse Prize, being named a Performance Today Young Artist in Residence, and Musical America's New Artist of the Month.
Lewis returns to the orchestra for the first time since the 2022-2023 season, bringing a resume that includes a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant. The program pairs Brahms' only violin concerto with Theofanidis' single-movement RAINBOW BODY and Sibelius' three-movement Fifth Symphony.
