Geneva Lewis & Audrey Vardanega: Schumann & Brahms

7 PM Doors & Pre-Reception
8 PM Recital
9 PM Post-Reception

Geneva Lewis & Audrey Vardanega: Schumann & Brahms

Gotham Arts in collaboration with Groupmuse is delighted to present an intimate private duo recital by violinist Geneva Lewis and pianist Audrey Vardanega featuring works by Schumann and Brahms.

An array of light bites and Wine will be served.

Program

BRAHMS Three Intermezzi for Piano, Op. 117

SCHUMANN Three Romances for Oboe and Piano, Op. 94 (arr. Violin and Piano)

BRAHMS Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78 ("Regensonate")

About the Artists

Watch Geneva and Audrey perform Schumann's Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in d minor at Tippet Rise Art Center

About Geneva Lewis

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 Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmonica de Minas Gerais, Atlanta Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The 2025-26 season includes performances with Kremerata Baltica, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Filharmonia Czěstochowska, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Utah 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, András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida. Geneva 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 the 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 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.

About Audrey Vardanega

Praised as a "[musically] eloquent" (San Francisco Classical Voice) player "with the kind of freedom, authority, and strength... that one expects from the world’s finest pianists" and a "bewitching musical presence" (The Piedmont Post), American pianist and arts entrepreneur Audrey Vardanega (b. 1995) has performed as a solo and collaborative pianist across Europe, China and America.

She has appeared at venues such as Merkin Hall at The Kaufman Music Center, Hangzhou Grand Theater, Princeton University Concerts, Tippet Rise Arts Center, Festival Napa Valley, Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, Teatro del Libertador San Martín, The Ravinia Festival, Gordon Music Series, San Francisco’s Old First Concerts, Herbst Theater, Festival Napa Valley, Rockefeller University, Valley of the Moon Music Festival and more.

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Audrey began her piano studies at the age of six with Araks Aghazarian. She began formal piano training with Robert Schwartz at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2002 to 2013 as well as formal composition training with Arkadi Serper at the Berkeley Crowden School from 2004 to 2013. Her past instructors include Seymour Lipkin, Jeremy Siepmann, Christopher Elton and Victor Rosenbaum.

Audrey earned her B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University in May 2017 and received her Masters in Music in May 2019 from Mannes The New School under the tutelage of Richard Goode. Upon graduation, she founded Musaics of the Bay, a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting musicians, composers, and visual artists for collaborations, residency programs, mentorship, and the creation of new work in the Bay Area and beyond.

Audrey also serves as the Director of Operations at The Autumn Salon, a NYC-based magazine, film production house and concert series that features world-class performances shared in intimate settings.

Audrey is passionate about providing emerging artists with opportunities to shape their own artistic careers by creating new communities and reimagining patronage. When she’s not playing piano or organizing concerts, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her shih-tzu and morkie, Romeo and Bear.

What's the music?

Audrey Vardanega

Geneva Lewis Violin