Kick off the NightLites series with a bold, high-contrast program that moves seamlessly from 20th-century edge to lush Romanticism. Conducted by Ziwei Ma, the evening opens with Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, performed by Louisville Orchestra Associate Concertmaster Julia Noone. Known for its driving rhythms, lean textures, and unexpected lyricism, the concerto is both direct and emotionally charged. The program continues with Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, a work often described as his most relaxed and luminous, filled with sweeping melodies, pastoral calm, and an exuberant final movement. Together, these works create a dynamic and approachable Friday night concert that balances intensity, beauty, and momentum.

Ziwei Ma
Conductor

Ziwei Ma is currently the Conducting Fellow at the New World Symphony. She has been named a 2026–2028 Award Recipient of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. In 2025, Ma served as Cover Conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra under Stéphane Denève and appeared as Offstage Conductor with members of the orchestra in performances of Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony.

Ma was invited to return to the Lakes Area Music Festival in 2026, following her first year as Conducting Fellow in summer 2025. In the summers of 2021, 2022, and 2023, Ma was selected as a Conducting Fellow at the Eastern Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the National Orchestral Institute + Festival, respectively. During her conducting studies in the United States, she gained experience under the guidance of Marin Alsop, James Ross, Robert Spano, Alan Gilbert, Gerard Schwarz, and Federico Cortese. Ma later participated in conducting workshops with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024 and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in 2025, where she received mentorship from JoAnn Falletta and Andrew Constantine, respectively.

Ma’s European experience includes participating in conducting masterclasses with the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester in Germany and the Silesian Philharmonic in Poland in 2023, where she worked under the guidance of Johannes Schlaefli and Lawrence Foster. In the summer of 2024, she conducted members of the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra as part of a masterclass led by Vasily Petrenko.

Born and raised in Beijing, Ma graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music before earning her master’s and doctoral degrees in orchestral conducting at The Hartt School under the mentorship of Edward Cumming.