Tessa Lark, violin/Artistic Director

Tessa is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time, consistently praised by critics and audiences for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, and musical elegance. She is a Grammy-nominated violinist and a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky. Tessa is the Artistic Director of the Moab Music Festival and Musical Masterworks, a chamber music series in Old Lyme, CT.

Her 25-26 season features a new concerto written for her by Lisa Biewala, premiering with The Louisville Orchestra and then performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Other highlights include returns to the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Pasadena Symphony, Tucson Symphony, and Lexington Philharmonic, and reprising Michael Torke’s violin concerto, Sky with the San Antonio Philharmonic. In recital, she will debut with the Da Camera Society of Texas and return to The Cliburn, and Sunriver Music Festival. As a chamber musician, she will tour with her string trio project with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer and cellist Joshua Roman to the Alabama School of Fine Arts, Shriver Hall (Baltimore), 92NY, Music Academy of the West, and Chamber Music Northwest.  

Tessa has performed all over the world including with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Indianapolis, Knoxville and Seattle Symphonies; as well as being presented by Carnegie Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, and London’s Wigmore Hall among others. She has an extensive discography including her latest album, The Stradgrass Sessions (2023), with an all-star roster of collaborators including Edgar Meyer, Jon Batiste, Sierra Hull, and Michael Cleveland. She plays a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.