Moab Music Festival Names Tessa Lark Artistic Director

The Moab Music Festival has announced that violinist Tessa Lark has been named its next Artistic Director. Co-Founding Directors Michael Barrett and Leslie Tomkins will be stepping back from the award-winning Festival (MMF) after 33 years; Lark’s role will combine the co-founders’ artistic responsibilities.

Festival Board of Trustees President Anne Wilson said, "While it is bittersweet to be moving on to the next chapter of artistic leadership, we are grateful to have had our founders' direction, guidance, and support in choosing their successor. This extraordinary festival is well positioned for the future, with the strong foundation they built, and their long and exemplary tenure. We are delighted to welcome Tessa as the Festival’s next Artistic Director. Her long history as a Festival violinist, coupled with her immense talent and creativity, make her a perfect fit. We are excited to see Tessa's vision unfold, and work together to usher in a new generation of world-class music in concert with the landscape® experiences, for which the Festival has become famous.”

Since her Festival debut in 2016, Lark has delighted audiences with her technical mastery, stylistic fluidity, and welcoming spirit. She boasts a Grammy- nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her recording of Sky, the violin concerto Michael Torke wrote for her. She has been engaged by the San Francisco, Seattle, and BBC Symphonies, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. A recipient of Lincoln Center’s most prestigious honor for emerging artists, the Hunt Family Award, she also received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and top prize at the Naumburg International Violin Competition. She serves as a Co-Host/Creative of From the Top, NPR’s famed showcase for young classical musicians, and is Artistic Director of the Musical Masterworks series in Old Lyme, CT.

During Moab’s 2024 season, Lark performed works from her latest album, The Stradgrass Sessions, which pays homage to her love for both Bluegrass and classical music, and her idyllic Kentucky upbringing. The variety of styles presented on the album offers a small window into her fresh take on Festival programming, enhancing what audiences have come to expect from the Festival over the last three decades. As Lark explains, “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. 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.” 

Under the direction of Tomkins and Barrett, MMF has gained an award-winning national and international reputation, growing from a grassroots organization in a geodesic dome in 1992 to a globally respected institution attracting world-class artists and patrons who want to experience music among southeast Utah’s stunning red rock landscape. The founders were a critical part of selecting the incoming artistic director who will usher in the next generation of leadership as they become Directors Emeriti. 

“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.”

As Artistic Director Emerita, Leslie Tomkins commented, “It has been a great honor and privilege to create and lead this organization for over three decades. Tessa came to mind immediately when considering a successor. She is a spectacular artist who brings joy and endless creativity to her playing and shines in musical genres beyond classical. Music in concert with the landscape distinguishes the Moab Music Festival from all others. Tessa has a deep connection to that special alchemy, and I look forward to seeing the Festival thrive and evolve under her imaginative, thoughtful leadership.” 

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