Community Spotlight: Tessa Lark & Moab Music Festival

Earlier this month, it was announced that violinist Tessa Lark would assume a new role as artistic director of Moab Music Festival, taking the reins from Michael Barrett and Leslie Tomkins who founded the Utah-based summer festival more than 30 years ago. Lark, who is known for stylistic fluidity and technical mastery, boasts a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her recording of Sky, and recently released her latest album, The Stradgrass Sessions, which combines her love of bluegrass and classical music.  At the news of her appointment—and in time for Moab Music Festival’s winter festival, Winterlude (January 25 to February 1)—Chamber Music America caught up with Lark to hear about her plans for the festival (a longtime CMA Member organization) and how she’ll plan to balance life as a touring artist and leader of a presenting organization.

Congratulations on your appointment! Have you had a long history with the festival?

I first ventured to Moab about 10 years ago as an artist. But for much longer before that I’d heard about Moab and how magical it is. My friends who had gone would show me pictures and videos from these surreal-looking concerts—playing in the most otherworldly canyons outdoors. When I finally got the chance to perform there, it’s such a formative experience. Pairing the music with the landscape is absolutely humbling in the best way. I was lucky to return to Moab a few times after that initial visit. If you’re an outdoorsy person—as I am—and you love music, Moab is a paradise.

Were you shocked by the idea of running it?

I’d known Michael Barrett, one of the founders, since my undergraduate days, when I was part of a program for young artists at Caramoor, where he had also been involved. This past summer, Michael told me that he and Leslie Tompkins, the co-founder and co-artistic director, were stepping down and they wondered if I wanted to put my name in the pool for the job. I’d never considered something like that—I wasn’t sure I was the type of person who could be an artistic director, because I’m one of those creatives who’s always bouncing around with ideas like a pinball! Still, I had some programming experience under my belt—I’ve been programming for a series in Old Lyme called Musical Masterworks. It took some convincing of their previous director to convince me I could be trusted with the job—and I’ve been loving it. Moab is a bigger lift—20 to 30 concerts a year compared to five. But when I thought about Moab, it made sense. I love nature—grew up in it. I adore music of all kinds, which Moab presents. And it seemed like a dream-come-true kind of job, even though I might not have imagined it for myself.

You’re a prolific artist, and touring—do you think this job will change your daily practice or artistic life?

I don’t see too much changing. I live in Brooklyn and Seattle part-time and travel about a quarter or a third of the year. I’ll be in Moab a few months of the year—especially the end of summer. What the change really does is help me home in a little more on the things I really want to do. This is a thing that as a youngster in college, I had heard happens: the busier you get, the more people you know, you start being able to divest and focus on the things that are a priority. That’s what I’m excited about—to refine what it is I’m doing and focus on what makes my heart sing most. And I’m excited to bring in collaborators—people I meet on the road—and enjoy their company in the summer.

You mentioned growing up in nature. Did the Kentucky landscape influence your artistry?

The tagline for Moab is “Music in concert with the landscape,” and that’s exactly how I grew up. My father is a retired wildlife biology professor. I grew up on protected land, and my father would bring his students to survey and study the wildlife where I lived. I was always outside, enjoying nature, and playing music. I grew up playing Americana music: folk, blues, jazz, improvisation. And that’s something I can’t turn off. I love the idea of boundary-less classical music. And the landscape in Moab is seemingly boundaryless, too. The sky is huge and the deeper surroundings are incredibly ancient.

When Michael and Leslie created the festival, the idea was to not necessarily bring pre-formed groups, but to bring individuals and allow them to create a performance and work on it together—in the landscape. Like a lab. Creatively speaking, I’m a spontaneous person, so the idea of creating a festival—a performance and experience that can only happen in that place at that time—is incredibly appealing to me.

Wow. That is an incredible recipe.

In this age of A.I., when you can create whatever and whenever you want, people aren’t as crucial anymore. But live events, especially concerts, are our last hopes that we’re hanging onto that really requires us to be together, in person. The pandemic highlighted that nothing replaces that live experience. And Moab is that times 1,000. The music would sound completely different if we were preparing for a Carnegie Hall performance, compared to playing underneath the Delicate Arch, or under the moonlight. You get back in touch with what it means to be human—when you have your necessities: food, water, shelter, what’s next? You commune and make art. For me, that’s the festival.

In your first 50 to 100 days, what’s on to-do list?

At the end of January, Moab presents a program, Winterlude. It’s a week of community music courses, drum circles, and jam sessions, along with some concerts. Michael and Leslie curated it, but I will surely be there. Then, I’ll be finishing up programming for this coming season, the annual festival in August and September. It’s a season for celebrating what Michael and Leslie have created over the past 32 years. I want to take a bird’s-eye view of the festival and get to know our audience. That said, I have a few confirmed folks: One of my longtime heroes Edgar Meyer, bass player, has just confirmed he’ll be with us. And Sierra Hall will be coming with her band, along with Inon Barnatan. He’s a regular! Inon runs La Jolla Summer Fest, and each year takes a car trip back to New York from California and often stops at Moab on the way. He’ll be there this year for sure.

I imagine the Moab Music Festival audience is a mixture of tourists and locals. How does the festival balance those “away” crowds vs. “home” crowds?

It’s something that we are constantly talking about internally. From my understanding is that we have a huge mix—and there are a lot of people who attended the festival and ended up buying places in the area because they fell in love with it. Oftentimes, our concerts are easier to access for locals, because of timing or location—so we do try to present a variety of concerts to maintain a wide range of people. The Winterlude audience, in particular, is comprised of locals. But we’re lucky to be able to entice folks from all over the world since Moab is a true wonder.

Visit moabmusicfest.org for more, or find Tessa Lark here at tessalark.com.