Violinist Tessa Lark fiddles with Sarasota Orchestra Masterworks program

While winning acclaim for her concert performances with orchestras and in competitions around the world, violinist Tessa Lark is trying to broaden the kind of programming being performed.

And Michael Torke’s “Sky,” a Pulitzer Prize-nominated concerto for violin and orchestra, fits right in with that plan. She will perform the piece as part of the opening Masterworks concert of the Sarasota Orchestra’s 75th anniversary season. Torke wrote the piece for Lark and she performed the world premiere in 2019.

“I am a classical violinist, but I was born and raised in Kentucky and there was a lot of bluegrass music in my household. My dad plays banjo for fun,” Lark said in a telephone interview before a recent concert with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. “I was always drawn to great music, whether classical, bluegrass, jazz or other improvised styles of folk music. I’ve tried to lead a life in music that’s open to all sorts of different styles and I’ve tried to incorporate these different cultures of music into the programming that I do, but it is always from a classical lens.”

She says that “Sky,” for which she earned a Grammy Award nomination in 2020, “falls perfectly within my mission. It’s a classical, true violin solo, but inspired by my bluegrass upbringing, bluegrass Americana sounds people will recognize. But it has a sophisticated structure and harmonic forms that classical lovers will appreciate.”

Lark had commissioned Torke to create a sonata a few years earlier “and he became interested in my background and asked if he could create a concerto for me. I was really touched.”

On his website, Torke says that “banjo-picking technique given to the solo violin was the departure point in the first movement” while in the second he uses Irish reels, which were the forerunner of American Bluegrass. The template for the third movement “was fiddle licks with a triplet feel. In each case I wrote themes of my own in these styles and developed the ideas into a standard ‘composed’ violin concerto. Everything is written out, nothing is improvised.”

Continuing search for a music director

“Sky”  is part of a season-opening concert that features Johan Strauss Jr.’s Overture to “Die Fledermaus” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica). David Alan Miller, music director of the Albany Symphony since 1992, has been a frequent guest conductor in Sarasota. Miller won a Grammy Award in 2014 for his recording of John Corigliano’s “Conjurer” with the Albany Symphony and Dame Evleyn Glennie.

The concert begins another season in search of a new music director, and any of the conductors could be considered a candidate, though the orchestra leadership is not identifying who may or may not be in the running.

The Orchestra worked with conductor Peter Oundjian to put together the new season, which he said is something of a reflection of Bramwell Tovey, who was named music director in 2021 but died before he could officially start the job in 2022.

Miller has been working as an artistic advisor to help guide orchestra personnel issues, such as auditions and tenure review, in the interim. In addition to the weekend Masterworks concerts, he will also lead the May Discoveries concert “Becoming Tchaikovsky.”

Violin vs. fiddle

Lark jokes that the difference between the violin and fiddle is “the violin has strings and the fiddle has strangs.” She plays the same instrument for both styles, a violin on loan from the Stradivarius Society of Chicago. “It’s a beautiful classical violin but also an incredible fiddle. It has a bassy quality to it that fits fiddle music.”

So far, she’s the only person to play Torke’s piece, but she’s hoping other violinists and fiddlers will take it on. Lark said it is the same instrument, but the musician has to have an inclination to different kinds of playing. “It’s like a dialect in a language. Fiddlers may be unfamiliar with reading music and playing certain techniques required in classical music. Fiddle music is often passed down by ear and classical musicians are often afraid to improvise. They really need the music. There’s a disconnect there, but that can totally be eradicated.”

Sarasota Orchestra Masterworks

Guest conductor David Alan Miller, soloist Tessa Lark, violin. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 3-4 and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $35-$105. 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Violinist brings bluegrass-flavored concerto to Sarasota Orchestra