Brevard Music Center Orchestra
Gemma New, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Emma Marhefka, soprano
GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 4
JOHANNES BRAHMS Violin Concerto
Gemma New leads the Brevard Music Center Orchestra in a program of symphonic brilliance.
Mahler’s luminous Symphony No. 4 opens the evening, featuring BMC alum Emma Marhefka in the radiant final movement that envisions a child’s view of heaven. The concert concludes with the return of celebrated violinist Gil Shaham, who performs Brahms’s majestic Violin Concerto in D major, one of the repertoire’s most beloved works.
Gemma New
Conductor
Known for her “unique sensitivity and a heightened attention to detail and texture” (The Washington Post) and “programming prowess” (Vancouver Sun), New Zealand-born Gemma New...
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Known for her “unique sensitivity and a heightened attention to detail and texture” (The Washington Post) and “programming prowess” (Vancouver Sun), New Zealand-born Gemma New (ONZM) is Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and a highly sought-after guest conductor worldwide. She is the recipient of the prestigious 2021 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award and was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2024.
Highlights of New’s 2025/2026 season include her debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, SWR Sinfonieorchester, and with Houston Grand Opera leading a production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. In the United States and Canada, she returns to lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada. Equally indemand in Europe, she returns to the BBC Philharmonic, Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and Bochumer Symphoniker.
In her fourth season as Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, New conducts a string of fall 2025 performances in Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland, featuring the World Premiere of an NZSO commission by Tabea Squire and collaborating with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and saxophonist Jess Gillam. Other 2025 highlights with the NZSO include performances of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 and Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.
In 2026, New conducts Mahler Symphony No. 1, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and Beethoven Symphony No. 9, collaborating with violinist James Ehnes and pianist Sir Stephen Hough, and a special “Rhythm and Dance” concert featuring Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story as well as the New Zealand premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s Antrópolis. The NZSO will also feature works by New Zealand composers Gillian Whitehead and Ross Harris, who will receive a World Premiere.
Among her recent season highlights, New made subscription debuts with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, Brussels Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and Prague Philharmonic. Her 2025 summer highlights include her debut with Santa Fe Opera leading a production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and her return to the Hollywood Bowl to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
2023/2024 marked New’s ninth and final season as Music Director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in Ontario, Canada. During her tenure, she deepened the artistic excellence of the orchestra and expanded its reach into the community, launching the “Intimate and Immersive” concert series celebrating music by Canadian composers in a visually vibrant setting. Under New’s leadership, the orchestra embraced a bold programming style that built audiences significantly, highlighted by collaborations with many of Canada’s leading soloists, including James Ehnes, Timothy Chooi, Janina Fialkowska and Stewart Goodyear.
New previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra with other previous posts including Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony. A former Dudamel Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, she was awarded Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards in 2017, 2019 and 2020, before receiving the 2021 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award.
Gil Shaham
Violin
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique, combined with inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit, has solidified his renown as an American master.
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Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique, combined with inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit, has solidified his renown as an American master. The GRAMMY Award-winner and Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year” is sought after worldwide for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at its most prestigious festivals. Recent and upcoming highlights include acclaimed recordings and performances of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin, as well as recitals with his longtime duo partner, pianist Akira Eguchi, throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Shaham regularly appears with the Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago Symphony Orchestras; the New York, Israel, Berlin, and Los Angeles Philharmonics; Orchestre de Paris; and has engaged in multi-year residencies with the Orchestras of Montreal, Stuttgart, and Singapore.
For his more than two dozen concerto and solo recordings, Shaham has earned multiple GRAMMY Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. Highlights include Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, and The Butterfly Lovers. His 2016 recording 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 2 as well as his recording of the Beethoven and Brahms concertos were GRAMMY nominated.
Born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971, Shaham was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and received the Avery Fisher Prize in 2008. In 2012, he was named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year.” He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius and performs on an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children.
Emma Marhefka
Voice
Emma Marhefka, soprano, is a 2025 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Currently in her first year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she made her Met Opera debut this season singing Papagena in The Magic Flute.
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Emma Marhefka, soprano, is a 2025 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Currently in her first year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she made her Met Opera debut this season singing Papagena in The Magic Flute. This summer, she makes her role and company debut with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis singing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Next season, she will return to the Met to sing Pamina in The Magic Flute and be featured in the company’s premiere of Kevin Puts’s Silent Night. Additionally in 2027, she will debut with Seattle Opera.
Other career highlights include Musetta La bohème (Arizona Opera), Gretel Hansel and Gretel (Opera Montana), Sandrina La finta giardiniera (Arizona Opera), Younger Alyce Glory Denied (Knoxville Opera, Opera Roanoke), Frasquita Carmen (Des Moines Metro Opera), as well as Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Mary Johnson Fellow Travelers, and The Vixen The Cunning Little Vixen. On the concert stage, Emma has appeared as the soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria with The New Choral Society and Arthur Honegger’s King David with The New York Choral Society at Alice Tully Hall.
She is an alumna of Arizona Opera’s Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist Program, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist Program, the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist Program, and the Janiec Opera Company of the Brevard Music Center. She holds degrees in voice from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. Emma is thrilled to be back in Brevard after her two seasons with the Janiec Opera Company in 2019 and 2021.