USCB Chamber Music: Tessa Lark, Alice Yoo, & Andrew Armstrong

• Andrew Armstrong, piano
• Tessa Lark, violin
• Alice Yoo, cello

Frédéric Chopin — Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39
Max Bruch — Kol Nidrei, Op. 47 (arr. for cello & piano)
Reinhold Glière — Huit Morceaux (8 Duets for Violin and Cello), Op. 39 ("IV. Canzonetta" & "VIII. Etude")
Eddie Barbash / Tessa Lark / Michael Thurber — Wooden Soldier (arr. for violin & cello)
Pablo de Sarasate — Carmen Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 25 (arr. for violin & piano)
Anton Arensky — Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32

For the opening concert, join Andrew Armstrong, violinist Tessa Lark, and cellist Alice Yoo for an evening of Chopin, Bruch, Sarasate, Gliere, Arensky, and American Bluegrass.

About UCSB Chamber Music

https://www.uscbchambermusic.com/

About Andrew Armstrong, piano

Pianist Andrew Armstrong has performed across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw's National Philharmonic. Armstrong's orchestral engagements have seen him perform more than 50 concertos with orchestra. He has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with the Elias, Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, and also as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, Boston Chamber Music Society, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. He has released several award-winning recordings with his longtime recital partner, James Ehnes. He is devoted to outreach programs and playing for children. Armstrong was recently appointed Artistic Director of Chamber Music on Main at the Columbia Museum in Columbia, SC.

https://andrewarmstrong.com/

About Tessa Lark, violin

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. In 2020 she was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category and received one of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist Awards, the special Hunt Family Award. Other recent honors include a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Silver Medalist in the 9th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition. A budding superstar in the classical realm, 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.

Tessa has been a featured soloist at numerous US orchestras, recital venues, and festivals since making her concerto debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at age 16. She has appeared with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; the Louisville Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic; the Albany, Indianapolis, Knoxville and Seattle symphonies; and has been presented by such venues as Carnegie Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Music Center at Strathmore, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, San Francisco Performances, Ravinia, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Australia’s Musica Viva Festival, and the Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Bridgehampton, and La Jolla summer festivals.

Highlights of her 2021-22 season include debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall; return appearances for recital series such as Cal Performances and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; and numerous concerto engagements, including the world premiere of Michael Schachter’s violin concerto, Cycles of Life, with the Knoxville Symphony in April 2022.

Tessa’s debut commercial recording – SKY, a bluegrass-inspired violin concerto written for her by Michael Torke and performed with the Albany Symphony Orchestra – earned a 2020 GRAMMY nomination, and Tessa’s discography has been expanding ever since. Recordings include Fantasy, an album on the First Hand Records label that includes fantasias by Schubert, Telemann and Fritz Kreisler, Ravel’s Tzigane, and Tessa’s own Appalachian Fantasy; Invention, a debut album of the violin-bass duo Lark and Thurber that comprises arrangements of Two-Part Inventions by J.S. Bach along with non-classical original compositions by Tessa and her fiancé, Michael Thurber; and a live performance recording of Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, released in 2021 by the Buffalo Philharmonic in honor of Piazzolla’s 100-year anniversary.

Tessa’s belief in music’s power to foster global connection and community across boundaries manifests in her genre-defying collaborations. Along with the Lark and Thurber duo, new projects include a string trio with composer-bassist Edgar Meyer and cellist Joshua Roman and a duo partnership with jazz guitarist Frank Vignola.

https://www.tessalark.com/

About Alice Yoo, cello

https://www.aliceyoocello.com/