SCMS: Tessa Lark, Efe Baltacıgil, & Paige Roberts Molloy

• Tessa Lark, violin
• Efe Baltacıgil, cello
• Paige Roberts Molloy, piano

World-class musicians, the greatest masterworks of chamber music repertoire, and an intimate parlor setting where you can be feet away from the musicians...  That's what you can expect from concerts at the Center for Chamber Music! Tickets to these events sell out quickly so get yours today.

About Seattle Chamber Music Society

http://www.seattlechambermusic.org/

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.

About Efe Baltacıgil, cello

Principal Cello of the Grammy-winning Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Turkey’s String Player of the Year, 2013, and awardee of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Baltacıgil is lauded for his risk-taking, passionate performances that immediately capture the heart and imagination.

Recipient of the Peter Jay Sharp Prize, the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize, and first prize in concerto competitions of Istanbul, New York, and the Allentown, Pennsylvania Schadt String Competition, Baltacıgil experienced early acclaim as winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Recipient of a bachelor’s degree from the Mimar Sinan University Conservatory in Istanbul and an artist diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, Efe began his professional career in the United States as Associate Principal Cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra before joining the Seattle Symphony as Principal Cello in 2011.

About Paige Roberts Molloy, piano

Pianist Paige Roberts Molloy was born in Texas and made her orchestral debut at the age of thirteen at Baylor University, performing Beethoven's 1st Piano Concerto. Since then she has been soloist with Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, East Texas Symphony, Rice University Orchestra, Jupiter Symphony, Flagstaff Festival Orchestra, and Leopoldina Orchestre in Poland. Paige has performed frequently in New York at Bargemusic, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, and Miller Theatre. She was also Artist-in-Residence at the Lotus Club. Recital appearances include Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Ottawa, Houston, Miami, Pittsburgh, Prague, and Paris. Paige has participated in many music festivals such as Marlboro, Tanglewood, Aspen, Santa Barbara, Grand Canyon, and Mecklenberg, Germany. In 1999, Paige played Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations for Twyla Tharp's ballet, which premiered in Palermo, Italy, and continued in the U.S. She subsequently performed Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata with Ms. Tharp's company at Duke University. Paige has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School where she studied with Abbey Simon and Peter Serkin.