Moab Music Festival Names VC Artist Tessa Lark as Artistic Director

Co-Founding Directors Michael Barrett and Leslie Tomkins will be stepping back from the festival after 33 years

The Moab Music Festival, in Utah, has today announced that VC Artist violinist Tessa Lark will take the reins from co-founding Directors Michael Barrett and Leslie Tomkins, as they become Directors Emeriti.

Lark’s new role as Artistic Director will combine the co-founders’ artistic responsibilities.

Tessa has enjoyed a long history with the festival after debuting in 2016. During Moab’s 2024 season, she performed works from her latest album, The Stradgrass Sessions — which pays homage to her love for both Bluegrass and classical music.

“I am beyond excited to be handing the reins of the Moab Music Festival to Tessa Lark,” shares Music Director Emeritus Michael Barrett. “I’ve known Tessa for nearly 20 years and have watched with admiration as she has fulfilled the promise of her immense talent in such creative and unexpected ways. It brings me great satisfaction that she has agreed to become Artistic Director. She has a finger on the pulse of musical life in America, and I’m certain her instinct and artistry will guide the Festival toward the synthesis of art, nature, and community Leslie and I first imagined 33 years ago.”

A graduate of the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School, where she studied with Miriam Fried, Lucy Chapman, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Ida Kavafian, Tessa is a former major prize winner at the Indianapolis, Michael Hill, and Naumburg International Violin Competitions.

In 2020 she was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category, for her recording of the violin concerto Michael Torke wrote for her, Sky.

She is also the recipient of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, and one of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist Awards, the Hunt Family Award.

She currently serves as a Co-Host/Creative of From the Top, NPR’s showcase for young classical musicians, and the Artistic Director of the Musical Masterworks series in Old Lyme, CT.

In addition to Moab, her recent festival performances include the Sarasota Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Classical Tahoe, and Tippet Rise.

“I’ve already fallen in love many times over with the Moab Music Festival and what makes the community unique: the impactful relationships that Michael Barrett and Leslie Tomkins have forged through their loving leadership, the symbiosis of new classical music with canonical favorites, the complex network of the Native cultures of the region, and the presence of myriad musical styles," Tessa said. "I take genuine pleasure in personally connecting with folks from all backgrounds, and am passionate about creating spaces that joyfully embrace both musical and spiritual confluence. What makes the Festival extraordinary is also my ultimate life goal: relishing nature and music, all at once. Sharing that heaven- on-earth with others is a dream come true.”

Highlights of Lark’s 2024-25 season consist of returns to the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic, and a debut with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In recital, she will debut with the San Francisco Symphony, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Artist Series of Sarasota.

As a chamber musician, she regularly tours with her string trio project with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer and cellist Joshua Roman.

Enjoy Tessa's Violin Channel Vanguard Concerts Series episode with pianist Amy Yang and guitarist Frank Vignola below: