VC Artist Tessa Lark to Step in For Violinist Baiba Skride

Due to illness, Skride has withdrawn from performing a UK premiere violin concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on March 3, 2023

Latvian violinist Baiba Skride was set to appear at London’s Barbican Hall on March 3 at 7.30 PM with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Cristian Macelaru.

VC Artist Tessa Lark will perform in Skride’s place, playing the UK premiere of A Portrait of a Lady by Swan Lake violin concerto by composer Victoria Borisova-Ollas.

“Baiba Skride is unwell and no longer able to take part in the concert,” wrote the Barbican on its website. “We are grateful to Tessa Lark who will perform as violin soloist.”

Lark will perform alongside German conductor Clemens Schuldt, who is also stepping in for this concert — taking the place of Romanian conductor Cristian Macelaru, who had to withdraw from the performance.

The concert program will also include select works from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid). 

To attend the concert, click here.

Skride started her music studies in Riga, Latvia, before attending Germany’s Rostock Conservatory of Music in 1995. In 2001, she won first prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition.

Her upcoming concerts include performing Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Dresden Philharmonic and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk in April, as well as playing the Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Belgian National Orchestra and Hugh Wolff in June 2023.

We wish Skride a speedy recovery!