Jason Vieaux and Tessa Lark
Grammy-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux will perform with celebrated violinist Tessa Lark on Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 6:30 p.m., presented by String Theory at the Hunter at the Hunter Museum of American Art. The duo’s program will include Piazzola’s L'Histoire du tango, Tárrega’s Capricho Arabe, Jobím’s A Felicidade, Bustamante’s Misionera, deFalla’s Siete Canciones, Metheny’s Antonia, and Kreisler’s Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice for solo violin Op. 6.
Review for the program and performers:
Pat Metheny’s Antonia is featured on Mr. Vieaux’s latest album, Infusion with bandoneonist Julien Labro, which was released on Azica Records on Oct. 28. The album features Mr. Vieaux and Mr. Labro in Mr. Labro’s arrangements of Leo Brouwer’s Tres Danzas Concertantes and Piazzolla’s Escualo, his arrangement of Radamés Gnattali’s Suite Retratos with bassist Peter Dominguez and percussionist Jamey Haddad, and Mr. Vieaux’s arrangements of Pat Metheny’s Antonia and iconic 1980s British rock band Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Listen to Metheny’s Antonia from the album here.
Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux is the guitarist that goes beyond the classical. His most recent solo album, Play, won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. In June 2014, NPR named “Zapateado” from the album as one of its “50 Favorite Songs of 2014 (So Far).”
Mr. Vieaux has earned a reputation for putting his expressiveness and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music, and his schedule of performing, teaching, and recording commitments is distinguished throughout the U.S. and abroad. His solo recitals have been a feature at every major guitar series in North America and at many of the important guitar festivals in Asia, Australia, Europe, and Mexico. Recent and future highlights include returns to the Caramoor Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and New York’s 92Y, as well as his Ravinia Festival debut and performances at Argentina’s Teatro Colon and Oslo, Norway’s Classical Music Fest. Vieaux’s appearances for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bard Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Grand Teton, and many others have forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician and programmer. He collaborates in recitals this season with Escher Quartet, acclaimed harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneón virtuoso Julien Labro. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres of works by Dan Visconti, Vivian Fung, Keith Fitch, Kinan Abou-Afach, David Ludwig, Jerod Tate, Eric Sessler, José Luis Merlin and Gary Schocker.
Mr. Vieaux has performed as concerto soloist with nearly 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Houston, Toronto, San Diego, Ft. Worth, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Kitchener-Waterloo, Richmond, IRIS Chamber, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Chautauqua Festival, and New Hampshire Music Festival. Some of the conductors he has worked with include David Robertson, Donato Cabrera, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Jahja Ling, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern, David Lockington, Steven Smith, and Edwin Outwater. During the 2016-2017 season, Jason Vieaux will make appearances with more than a dozen symphony orchestras throughout the US and Canada. These include return engagements with the Santa Fe and Edmonton Symphonies, an appearance with the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra with conductor Gerard Schwarz, and a Piazzolla Double Concerto with Julien Labro and the Arkansas Symphony. Vieaux will also be performing Dan Visconti’s new guitar concerto, Living Language, which he premiered with California Symphony in May, with the symphonies of Reading, Fort Wayne, and Richmond.
Mr. Vieaux continues to bring important repertoire alive in the recording studio as well. His latest album, Infusion with bandoneonist Julien Labro, was released in October on Azica Records and features Vieaux and Labro in Labro’s arrangements of Leo Brouwer’s Tres Danzas Concertantes and Piazzolla’s Escualo, his arrangement of Radamés Gnattali’s Suite Retratos with bassist Peter Dominguez and percussionist Jamey Haddad, Pat Metheny’s Antonia, and Vieaux’s arrangement of iconic 1980s British rock band Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Vieaux recently recorded Alberto Ginastera’s Sonata for Guitar Op. 47 for a Ginastera Centennial album produced by Yolanda Kondonassis, which was released in October on Oberlin Music and features additional performances by Kondonassis, violinist Gil Shaham, and pianist Orli Shaham. His duo album Together, with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, was released in January 2015. Mr. Vieaux was the first classical musician to be featured on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk” series, on which he made a rare repeat performance in 2015 with Yolanda Kondonassis.
In 2012, the Jason Vieaux School of Classical Guitar was launched with ArtistWorks Inc., an unprecedented technological interface that provides one-on-one online study with Mr. Vieaux for guitar students around the world. In 2011, he co-founded the guitar department at The Curtis Institute of Music, and in 2015 was invited to inaugurate the guitar program at the Eastern Music Festival. Mr. Vieaux has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1997, heading the guitar department since 2001.
Mr. Vieaux is affiliated with Philadelphia’s Astral Artists. His primary teachers were Jeremy Sparks and John Holmquist. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious GFA International Guitar Competition First Prize, the event’s youngest winner ever. He is also honored with a Naumburg Foundation top prize, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award, and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. In 1995, Vieaux was an Artistic Ambassador of the U.S. to Southeast Asia.
About Tessa Lark
Winner of the prestigious Naumburg International Violin Award in 2012, Tessa Lark is one of the most captivating artistic voices of her time. She has been consistently praised by critics and audiences alike for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility and musical elegance. Ms. Lark was named Silver Medalist of the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Other awards include the first prize in both the 2008 Irving Klein International Strings Competition and the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players; and top prizes in the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as part of her piano trio, Modêtre, and the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in 2009.
At age 16, Ms. Lark was soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has since then performed concerti with the orchestras around the world. Ms. Lark has given many solo recitals, including her Carnegie Hall debut recital in Weill Hall and other concerts for the San Francisco Performances series, the radio broadcasted Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series, Ravinia’s Bennett-Gordon Classics series, Chamber Music Tulsa series, and the Caramoor Wednesday Morning Concert series. A passionate chamber musician, she has been invited to summer festivals such as Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, Music@Menlo, and more. Ms. Lark is a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi and has participated in the Music in the Vineyards Festival, the Wadsworth Chamber Music series and Caramoor’s Rising Star Series. Ms. Lark also participated in the 2012 Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute concert tour.
Ms. Lark started playing violin at age six studying with Cathy McGlasson. She joined the Starling Strings Program at University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music in 2001 and studied with Kurt Sassmannshaus. She entered New England Conservatory in the fall of 2006 to begin studies with Miriam Fried and received her Master’s degree in May 2012 with Fried and Lucy Chapman. In addition to her busy performance schedule, Ms. Lark has served on the faculty of the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing, China and Lee University School of Music. As a From the Top alumna, Ms. Lark plays an active role in their arts leadership program as a performer and educator. Keeping in touch with her Kentucky roots, Ms. Lark enjoys playing bluegrass and Appalachian music. She collaborates frequently with Mark O’Connor and is included in his CD “MOC4,” released in June 2014
Tickets are $40 general admission, $30 for Hunter Members, $10 for students and available here.