ENKOR International Music Competition
Piano and Violin 2015
GENEVA LEWIS | New Zealand/USA | Age 17 | Violin
Grand Prize
Score: 95.05
Rules: lowest possible scores: 60 points | highest possible scores: 100 points
Teacher: Aimee Kreston
Saint-Saëns, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major. (Mvt. III)
Barber, Violin Concerto 2nd Mvt. Andante
Geneva began playing the violin at the age of three in her hometown of Auckland, New Zealand. In 2005, Geneva moved to the United States and began studying at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, where she is a full merit scholarship student, with Aimee Kreston, Concertmaster of the Pasadena Symphony. Geneva has also studied extensively with Almita Vamos, who was Ms Kreston's teacher. Geneva is a member of the American Youth Symphony (ages 15-27), conducted by Alexander Treger, where she sits in the first violin section. An accomplished pianist, Geneva studies piano with David Dunford at The Pioneer School of Music in Tustin, Southern California.
Artistic biography
Geneva Lewis, originally of Auckland, New Zealand, now residing in Irvine, CA, won the
‘Discovery Prize’ in the YMF Debut Concerto Competition. A merit scholarship student at the
Colburn School of Performing Arts, in 2005, Geneva began studying with Aimee Kreston,
Concertmaster of the Pasadena Symphony. Geneva is also an accomplished pianist and studies
with David Dunford at The Pioneer School of Music. Geneva made her orchestral debut at age 11, and since has matured into an exceptional violinist.
Her powerful performances have awarded her first-prize wins in numerous competitions,
including the Brentwood Concerto Competition, Parness Concerto Competition and The American
Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition. She was presented the ‘Discovery Prize’
in the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Concerto Competition and won the Doublestop
Foundation's "Artist In You" Instrument Loan Competition. As a soloist, Geneva has performed
with the Brentwood Westwood Symphony Orchestra, Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, Culver
City Symphony, Pasadena Pops, Diablo Symphony and Pasadena Symphony and at such venues as the Colburn School, Mozarteum in Salzburg and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. She made her
solo debut with the Pasadena Symphony in their 2014/2015 season. In 2012, she was cast
“alongside a transcendent Mariette Hartley” (LA Times) as the young virtuoso violinist, Erica
Morini, in the LA Times Critic's Choice, The Morini Strad.
Geneva plays with a violin carved by Terry Borman in 1991. She was recently chosen as one of
the world's top 20 young violinists in the Menuhin International Violin Competition held in
Austin, Texas in February 2014. When Geneva is away from performing she can be found at the
tennis courts, practicing ballet, lyrical and modern dance, reading and playing with her pug,
Serena.
COMPETITIONS
- 1st Prize Brentwood Concerto Competition 2012
- 1st Prize Junior Chamber Music of Southern California Concerto Competition 2012
- 1st Prize Southern California Junior Bach Festival Complete Works Audition 2012
- 1St Prize American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition 2012
- 1st Prize VOCE State (California) Ensemble Competition 2012
- Recipient of the Horton-Kohl Young Artists Award 2012
- Semi-Finalist Fischoff Competition 2013, 2014
- 1st Prize Parness Concerto Competition 2013
- 1St Prize Discovery Prize Young Musicians Foundation Debut Concerto Competition 2013
- 1st Prize Doublestop Foundation Artist In You: Instrument Loan Competition 2013
- Finalist 2014 Menuhin Competition
- Finalist 2015 Young Arts Competition
- 1st Prize 2015 Mondavi National Young Artists Competition
- 1st Prize & Gold Medal 2015 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition
CONCERT EXPERIENCE
- Orchestral debut aged 11 with The Pasadena POPS 2009
- Performed with the Brentwood Westwood Symphony Orchestra as a concerto soloist 2012
- Performed with Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra as a concerto soloist 2012
- Performed with her ensemble at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria 2012
- Performed at The Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall 2012
- Played Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the Sierra Summer Festival Orchestra 2012
- Performed live (twice) with her ensemble on KUSC 2013
- Performed with the Culver City Symphony as a concerto soloist 2013
- Performed with the Sierra Summer Festival Orchestra as a concerto soloist 2013
- Performed with the Sierra Summer Festival Orchestra as a concerto soloist 2013
- Performed with the Pasadena Pops as a soloist 2014
- Performed in Young Musician Foundation's 59th Annual Benefit Gala playing in a duet with
Glenn Dicterow, NY Philhamonic Concertmaster, in March, 2014
- Performed as a concerto soloist with the Diablo Symphony, San Francisco, 2015
- Performed as a concerto soloist with the Pasadena Symphony 2015