Tessa joins From the Top as Co-Host on Show 406, recorded in Louisville, Kentucky, Show 397, recorded in New York, New York, and  Show 376  from Boston, Massachusetts.

She is an alumna of From the Top, having appeared on Shows 93, 243 and 286.

Violinist Tessa Lark, recipient of a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Silver Medalist in the 2014 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition, is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time. A budding superstar in the classical realm, she is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky. Since making her concerto debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at sixteen, Ms. Lark has appeared with dozens of orchestras, festivals, and recital venues which include Carnegie Hall, Ravinia, San Francisco Performances, Marlboro Music, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Australia’s Musica Viva Festival. Recent and upcoming highlights include debuts with the Seattle and Indianapolis symphonies and the Buffalo and Rochester philharmonics. In January 2019, she made her debut with the Albany Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of SKY, a bluegrass-inspired violin concerto written for her by Michael Torke, and since then she has performed the work with numerous other orchestras. Ms. Lark is a graduate of New England Conservatory with an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School. She plays a ca.1600 G.P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Recently, Tessa received the 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, the Hunt Family Award, and a 2020 Grammy Nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her recording of Michael Torke‘s Sky Concerto.

Follow her on Instagram @tessalark.

Acclaimed composer and bassist Michael Thurber’s musical career defies categorization. From composing for The Royal Shakespeare Company and co-founding the smash YouTube channel CDZA, to creating his Thurber Theater variety show, teaching at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, composing for symphony orchestras across the country, and performing in the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as well as in a duo with violinist Tessa Lark, Thurber’s musical journey has been remarkably singular. He is an alumnus of From the Top and serves on From the Top’s Board of Directors.

Michael’s history with From the Top:

Michael performed most recently on NPR’s From the Top Show 303, recorded in Interlochen, MI, on March 13, 2015. His original composition for full orchestra, “The Three Musketeers”, debuted at this recording. The performance featured soloists Kris Bowers (piano), Charles Yang (violin), Mark Dover (clarinet), and Thurber himself on bass. Learn more.

He has also appeared on Show 125, recorded in Winona Lake, IN, on June 18, 2005; and on Show 142, recorded in Granville, OH, on April 7, 2006

David performed on Show 376 in Boston on October 6, 2019.

David Smith (cello), 16, lives in Radford, Virginia, where he studies cello with Julian Schwarz at the Shenandoah Conservatory and Lisa Liske Doorandish. He is a member of the Roanoke Youth Symphony and Celloworks Cello Studio. One of David’s most memorable musical moments was when he was 10 and was accepted into the Suzuki Youth Orchestra of America in Minneapolis and performed in an orchestra for the first time. David also enjoys experimenting with composing electronic music in his own amateur sound studio at home. In addition to music, David loves reading science fiction books, playing online computer games with a friend in Vietnam, and programming in Python.