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OLD LYME — When Tessa Lark, violinist and artistic director of Musical Masterworks, sat down to plan a program for the 35th-anniversary season, she worked with a simple rule.
“I go with my gut,” Lark told CT Examiner in a recent interview. “I program concerts that I myself would like to see. I enjoy different styles and my friends happen to be a diverse bunch.”
Fans of Musical Masterworks, which opens its season Oct. 4 and 5 at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, will be happy to hear her friends also happen to be some of the most lauded names in classical music. This season’s performers include Grammy-winning bassist and MacArthur Fellow Edgar Meyer, internationally acclaimed pianist Inon Barnatan, and Bridget Kibbey, who Vogue crowned “the Yo-Yo Ma of the harp.”
Called “one of the most admired pianists of his generation” by The New York Times, Barnatan will be part of the powerhouse quintet on the first program, which features three works by Franz Schubert, including the much-loved “Trout Quintet.”
“I call it a party piece. You can almost smell the wienerschnitzel,” said Lark with a laugh. “But the instrumentation is unusual and, like a lot of Schubert, in its simplicity I find there is quite a bit of poignancy and melancholy.”
While “the Trout” may be a familiar mainstay of the classical canon, Lark said she and her fellow performers look for surprising nuances that show chamber music is a vital form.
“‘Classical music’ is a misnomer,” she said. “It’s a living, breathing, forever-changing landscape.”
Highlights of her 2024-25 work includes returns to the BBC Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic, a debut with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and a recital for the San Francisco Symphony.
She was also named artistic director of the Moab Music Festival and is a mentor for the Irving M. Klein International String Competition.
That last connection introduced her to fellow violinist Julia Schilz, a Juilliard grad student who won the 2025 competition’s grand prize. Schilz will join Lark in Old Lyme for the April concert also featuring pianist Jeewon Park, who has performed extensively in North America, Europe and Asia.
In December, Meyer and Amy Yang, who The Washington Post called “a jaw-dropping pianist who steals the show … with effortless finesse,” will play a recital of their own compositions. Lark, who has collaborated with both, said she’s excited to see how the audience reacts to the pair.
“This will be their first time together in Old Lyme,” she said. “That’s just going to be mind blowing.”
The season’s first program also includes one of Lark’s compositions, “Appalachian Fantasy,” which draws on her own Kentucky roots.
February’s eclectic program of Joseph Haydn, English works and café music brings Lark together with genre-defying cellist Mike Block. March showcases Kibbey with a quintet for “The Sacred and the Profane,” a collection of works by Claude Debussy, J.S. Bach, Benjamin Britten and more.
In addition to the five main concerts at the church, Musical Masterworks will offer the annual MMModern concert at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts. Th event features Catalan singer and guitarist Lau Noah, Lark and Cuban pianist Ahmed Alom, a returning favorite of Musical Masterworks audiences.
Though her performing career takes her around the world, Lark said she loves coming home, whether that means to Kentucky or to Old Lyme.
It was on a last-minute tour with Musical Masterworks’ artistic director emeritus Edward Arron that Lark first encountered her second home at the First Congregational Church.
The last stop on a set of winter concerts during winter, she said the church at the time seemed an oasis of warmth and possibility. Later, in 2022, she heard Arron was ready to pass the baton to a new artistic director.
“I wondered, ‘who’s going to be the lucky bloke?’” Lark remembered. “The acoustics are ideal and the audience is so well informed, but open-minded.”
“It’s a dream job.”
Musical Masterworks 35th season runs from October through April at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme at 4 Lyme Street. For ticket and subscription information, visit Musical Masterworks at www.musicalmasterworks.org or email [email protected].
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