ABOUT TESSA

Violinist Tessa Lark 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. Increasingly in demand in the classical realm, in 2020 she was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. She is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky, delighting audiences with programming that includes Appalachian and bluegrass music, and inspiring composers to write for her.

In addition to her performance schedule, Tessa is the Artistic Director of the Moab Music Festival. She also continues her work as Artistic Director of Musical Masterworks, a chamber music series in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Her summer of 2026 included performances with the Denver Chamber Music Festival, Telluride, The Knights at Central Park, Bellingham Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, NYO2 at Carnegie Hall and on tour in the Dominican Republic, Cabrillo Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Sunriver, and Moab Music Festival.

Highlights of Lark’s 2026-27 season include debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony with Andrés Orozco-Estrada (Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy) and Florida Orchestra with Michael Francis (Torke’s Sky concerto, written for her), and she returns to Rochester Symphony and Carnegie Hall. The season also features two new double concertos written for her. The Derrick Skye concerto for violin and cello will be premiered at the New England Conservatory with cellist Deborah Pae in October 2026, and the Christopher Theofanidis concerto for violin and percussion will be premiered at Frost School of Music at the University of Miami with percussionist Svet Stoyanov in February 2027, then repeated at Carnegie Hall the following month. As a chamber musician, she will tour with her string trio project with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer and cellist Joshua Roman to venues including the Schwartz Center at Emory University, Arizona Musicfest, and Corning Civic Music.

Tessa’s 25-26 season featured a new concerto written for her by Lisa Bielawa which premiered with The Louisville Orchestra and Teddy Abrams in October 2025 and was repeated the following month with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cristian Măcelaru. She gave recitals with the Da Camera Society of Texas, The Cliburn, and Sunriver Music Festival, Oregon, and made a guest appearance at a recital featuring Renée Fleming and Inon Barnatan at Cal Performances Berkeley. Her trio with Edgar Meyer and Joshua Roman performed across the country from the Music Academy of the West and Chambermusic NW to 92NY and Shriver Hall.

Tessa has performed with orchestras, recital venues and festivals around the world. She has appeared 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, Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, San Francisco Performances, Australia’s Musica Viva Festival, and the Mostly Mozart summer festivals.

Tessa’s most recent album, The Stradgrass Sessions, released in spring 2023, features collaborators and composers including Edgar Meyer, pianist Jon Batiste, mandolinist Sierra Hull and fiddler Michael Cleveland. The album’s selections mix original compositions by Lark and her collaborators with a sonata by Eugène Ysaÿe, a selection of Bartók violin duets arranged for violin and mandolin and the world premiere recording of John Corigliano’s STOMP.

Tessa’s debut commercial recording was the Grammy-nominated Sky, a bluegrass-inspired violin concerto written for her by Michael Torke and performed with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Her discography also includes Fantasy on First Hand Records: Fantasias by Schubert, Telemann and Fritz Kreisler; Ravel’s Tzigane; and Lark’s own composition Appalachian Fantasy. Other releases include Invention, an album for the violin-bass duo featuring Tessa and bassist Michael Thurber which comprises arrangements of Two-Part Inventions by J. S. Bach along with original compositions by both duo partners. A live performance recording of Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires was also released in 2021 by the Buffalo Philharmonic in honour of Piazzolla’s centenary.

Lark is a recipient of the Hunt Family Award, one of the Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist Awards, as well as a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She was Silver Medalist in the 9th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition. She is a graduate of New England Conservatory and completed her Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg, Ida Kavafian, and Daniel Phillips. Her primary mentors include Cathy McGlasson, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Miriam Fried, and Lucy Chapman. She plays a 1784 Lorenzo Storioni and a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin; the latter on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.