As far as double acts go, Kiwi tennis icon Chris Lewis and his daughter Geneva are a rather impressive one.
Chris, who stunned the world when he famously reached the final of Wimbledon as an unseeded player in 1983, is these days a doting dad to his daughter, a talented violinist who has been invited back to Aotearoa to headline the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s opening performance of 2023.
“I couldn’t be a prouder dad,” Chris says from his California home. “It’ll be a surreal moment watching her on the stage at the Auckland Town Hall. I remember taking the kids to watch performances there when they were little and here we are now. It’s a big parenting moment, that’s for sure!”
Chris will be in the audience when Geneva plays in Auckland.
It’s a welcome homecoming for US-based Chris, 65, who hasn’t been back to New Zealand since 2015, but even more so for Geneva, 24, who hasn’t visited since her family moved to America in 2005 to chase opportunities in the tennis world.
“It’s going to be a really emotional experience,” she tells. “I still have such a strong sense of home with New Zealand, but it’s not a place that I know too well! I’ve recently been trying to play music from New Zealand composers, and try and figure out a way where I can authentically have this connection to home. But of course, I can’t wait to get back and develop that connection even more.”
And while Geneva’s talent at violin is hugely impressive, there was a time where we could have been looking at another Kiwi Lewis on the world’s tennis courts too.
“She was number one in her age group in Southern California,” Chris says. “But I remember when she was about 12 or 13, she came to me with a bit of trepidation and told me that while she loved tennis, she loved music more, and she knew then she wanted to focus on it as a career.
“She was scared that I would be disappointed! But as a parent, it’s your ultimate ambition to see your kids do well – it doesn’t matter what the passion is. There was no disappointment there – quite the opposite. She was so determined, even from that early age, that she was going to be a professional violinist, and she knew she needed to devote her time exclusively to it.”
Music and sport are irrevocably intertwined in the Lewis household, with Chris teaching Geneva and her siblings Nathan and Rochelle the love of classical music from a young age. As such, Geneva says choosing violin felt as natural as picking up a tennis racquet.
“Of course, growing up with my dad and seeing his success was amazing, but he and my mum were so supportive of whatever I wanted to do. We were always really fascinated drawing comparisons between music and sport – the process of trying to become excellent in both is so hard.”
And excellence she has achieved, recently being named one of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists, as well as being lauded as “one to watch” and for her “remarkable mastery of her instrument” by commentators.
“The violin has just always been the most natural way to express myself,” she explains. “I’ve just always connected with it and it’s always felt like me. So wanting to be a professional violinist really made sense after connecting so strongly, and then I was really lucky enough to have some incredible mentors and teachers too.”
To perform back in Aotearoa is a real full-circle moment for both Geneva and Chris, who is looking forward to exploring and rediscovering Aotearoa after so long away.
“I grew up there, I raised my kids there and I’ll always consider myself a New Zealander,” Chris enthuses. “I remember at Wimbledon – in the days of telegrams and cables – I got more of them than anyone had ever got in the history of Wimbledon. They needed two or three lockers just dedicated to the telegrams that kept flooding in from home; that was the incredible level of support I had.
Kiwis were on the edge of their seats when Chris made it to the Wimbledon final in 1983.
“I always felt very strongly about the kids growing up in New Zealand because I myself had such an idyllic childhood, but international opportunities with tennis took us away.
“But to come home and watch my daughter succeed so wonderfully is something I know I’ll remember for a long time.”
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