Austin Symphony to Open 2026-2027 Season With Brahms, Sibelius and More
Violinist Geneva Lewis returns to perform Brahms' Violin Concerto at The Long Center's Dell Hall.
The Austin Symphony Orchestra will open its 2026-2027 season with Brahms and the Nordic Masterpiece, featuring violinist Geneva Lewis. The program will be performed Friday, September 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 13 at 2 p.m. at The Long Center's Dell Hall.
Music Director Peter Bay will conduct the concerts, which pair Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto with Jean Sibelius' Fifth Symphony and Christopher Theofanidis' Rainbow Body.
Lewis returns to the Austin Symphony Orchestra for the first time since the 2022-2023 season.
RAINBOW BODY
The program will open with Christopher Theofanidis' Rainbow Body, a single-movement work with a running time of approximately 13 minutes.
The piece draws loosely on “Ave Maria, o auctrix vite,” a melody by 12th-century composer Hildegard of Bingen. The composition was also inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist concept of the “rainbow body,” in which the body of an enlightened being is absorbed back into the universe upon death.
BRAHMS' VIOLIN CONCERTO
Geneva Lewis will take the spotlight for Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto.
Composed in 1878, the work was written for and dedicated to Brahms' friend, violinist Joseph Joachim, who also gave its premiere. It is the only violin concerto Brahms composed and has become one of the central works of the violin repertoire.
Lewis, a New Zealand-born violinist, has received a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was the Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition.
Her additional honors include Kronberg Academy's Prince of Hesse Prize, being named a Performance Today Young Artist in Residence and recognition as a Musical America New Artist of the Month.
SIBELIUS' FIFTH SYMPHONY
The program will also feature Jean Sibelius' Fifth Symphony.
The three-movement orchestral work was originally composed between 1914 and 1915 after the Finnish government commissioned Sibelius to write a symphony in celebration of his 50th birthday. The composer's birthday, December 8, 1915, was declared a national holiday in Finland.
Performance Information
Brahms and the Nordic Masterpiece will be performed Friday, September 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 13 at 2 p.m. at The Long Center's Dell Hall in Austin.
Geneva Lewis will perform on violin, with Peter Bay conducting the Austin Symphony Orchestra.
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