Lark, Roman, and Meyer Trio

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 she is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky.

Lark’s newest album, The Stradgrass Sessions, was released this past spring. Her debut commercial recording was the Grammy-nominated SKY, and her discography also includes Fantasy; Invention, recorded with Michael Thurber; and a live recording of Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

In addition to her performance schedule, Lark champions young aspiring artists and supports the next generation of musicians through her work as Co-host/Creative of NPR’s From the Top.

Lark plays a ca. 1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Joshua Roman is a cello soloist and composer, hailed for his “effortlessly expressive tone…and playful zest for exploration” (The New York Times), as well as his “extraordinary technical and musical gifts” and “blend of precision and almost improvisatory freedom…that goes straight to the heart” (The San Francisco Chronicle). His genre-bending programs and wide-ranging collaborations have grown out of an “enthusiasm for musical evolution that is as contagious as his love for the classics” (The Seattle Times).

Committed to bringing classical music to new audiences, Roman has collaborated with world-class artists across genres and disciplines, including Edgar Meyer, DJ Spooky, Tony-winner/MacArthur Genius Bill T. Jones, Grammy Award-winning East African vocalist Somi, and Tony Award-nominated actor Anna Deavere Smith. His concert of the complete Bach solo cello suites after the 2016 U.S. presidential election had nearly a million live viewers, and his solo performance with the YouTube Symphony at Carnegie Hall was viewed by 33 million people across nearly 200 countries, with Yo-Yo Ma introducing him as “one of the great exemplars of the ideal 21st-century musician.”

As a soloist with an “exceptionally high quality of performances” (LA Times), Roman has performed with leading orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony, BBC Scottish, and Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the Music Academy of the West, Illinois Philharmonic, and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and Roman has also premiered new works composed for him by Mason Bates, Reena Esmail, Timo Andres, Gabriela Lena Frank, Aaron Jay Kernis, Lisa Bielawa, and others.

Hailed by The New Yorker as “…the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled history of his instrument,” Mr. Meyer’s uniqueness in the field was recognized when he became the only bassist to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in addition to a MacArthur Award. He was honored with his sixth and seventh Grammy Awards for the recording entitled As We Speak with Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Rakesh Chaurasia, and Meyer, released in May 2023.

Meyer recently released a duo recording, But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody?, with Christian McBride and completed a recording of his three concertos with The Knights, conducted by Eric Jacobsen and produced by Chris Thile. In June of 2023, to complete the concerto project, he recorded his Concertino for Bass and 14 Strings in the U.K. with the Scottish Ensemble led by Jonathan Morton, who commissioned and toured the piece with Meyer in spring of 2022. Additionally, Meyer is part of a five-composer group, each having composed a movement for a U.S. premiere with Joshua Bell and the New York Philharmonic in September of 2023.

In the fall of 2024 and spring of 2025, his newly formed trio with violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Joshua Roman will tour the U.S., performing string trios he composed in the 1980’s as well as a newly commissioned work. Mr. Meyer is the subject of an ongoing documentary filmed and produced by Tessa Lark, Andrew Adair, and Michael Thurber.