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 in demand as a classical violinist and is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky.

Highlights of Tessa’s 2024-25 season include returns to the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Barber concerto) and the Rochester Philharmonic (Bernstein Serenade).  In recital, she will debut with San Francisco Symphony, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Artist Series of Sarasota. Tessa reprises Michael Torke’s violin concerto (for which she received a Grammy nomination), Sky with the Boulder and Colorado Springs Philharmonics, as well as the West Michigan, Williamsburg, Shreveport, and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestras. As a chamber musician, she will tour across the U.S. with her string trio project with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer and cellist Joshua Roman. Tessa 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.

In addition to her performance schedule, Tessa is the newly minted Artistic Director of the Moab Music Festival and continues her work as Artistic Director of Musical Masterworks, a chamber music  series  in Old Lyme, CT. She also champions young aspiring artists through her work as Co-host/Creative of NPR’s From the Top. Tessa plays a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.