Sedona News – On Sunday, January 7, 2024, violinist Tessa Lark will return to the Chamber Music Sedona stage alongside bassist/composer Michael Thurber and jazz harpist/composer Charles Overton for a concert showcasing works from a multitude of genres, from bluegrass to jazz to classical to originals. The concert, which is the second of Chamber Music Sedona’s 2023-24 season, will take place at 3 p.m. at the Sedona Performing Arts Center, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Rd., Sedona, Ariz. 86336.
Considered one of today’s most captivating artistic voices, Tessa Lark is 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 received one of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist Awards: the special Hunt Family Award. Lark regularly solos with major orchestras around the world and has appeared in recitals in acclaimed venues and series such as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Carnegie Hall’s Distinctive Debuts series in Weill Hall (2017). She is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky, delighting audiences with programming that includes Appalachian and bluegrass music and inspiring composers to write for her.
Lark currently tours the world in a duo with Michael Thurber. Whether composing scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing bass in “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” house band, scoring commercials for Vanity Fair and BBC or co-founding the hit YouTube channel CDZA (30 million views), Thurber’s career has defied category. As a theater lyricist/composer, he made his international debut scoring “Antony and Cleopatra,” directed by Oscar winner Tarell McCraney. He has scored numerous public theater productions, and his musical, “GODDESS,” received its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in the fall of 2022. As a bassist, Thurber has performed with several iconic artists, including James Taylor, Willie Nelson, Yo Yo Ma and more. His career as a producer began in 2012 when he co-founded CDZA, which was a headliner at the inaugural YouTube Music Awards. Most recently, Thurber has been releasing singles under his own name.
Equally at home in an orchestra or a jazz club, harpist Charles Overton strives to create a musical environment that is accessible, exciting and can resonate deeply with any audience regardless of musical genre. He began his harp studies at age 10 under the direction of Lynelle Ediger; as a member of her American Youth Harp Ensemble, he had the opportunity to perform internationally in notable venues at a young age. After fine tuning his performance and competition skills at Interlochen Arts Academy, Overton enrolled at the Berklee College of Music, where he was the first harpist to be accepted into the school’s prestigious Global Jazz Institute. His senior recital as a featured act at one of Boston’s premiere jazz clubs served as the beginning of the Charles Overton Group, which released its first album, “Convergence,” in 2017. As Overton has continued to expand his musicianship, he has shared the stage with various groups, artists and orchestras, performing as a jazz musician at festivals and jazz series at home and abroad, as well as a classical musician, composer and educator.
To learn more about the concert or to purchase tickets, visit https://chambermusicsedona.org/2024-tessa-lark-michael-thurber-and-charles-overton/.