- Hello, everybody.

I'm Satori Shakoor.

Welcome to "Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove", where Detroit's talented artists take the stage, and share insights into their creations.

Today's episode is curated by great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

They brought concert violinist, Tessa Lark who will perform various pieces from her repertoire.

Stay tuned and get ready for "Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove".

- [Announcer] Funding for "Detroit Performs" is provided by The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, the Kresge Foundation, the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Welcome everybody to "Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove".

I'm honored and excited to be sitting here with the president of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Mr. Maury Okun.

- It's my pleasure to be here too, Satori.

It's so nice to finally meet you.

- I understand you're the president and founder of Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

- I will say that I'm certainly the president.

But I can't take credit for being the only founder.

I was one of a few people who founded it, 30 years ago.

- And who are they?

- There was a pianist by the name of James Toko, who was a wonderful musician, from Detroit originally, went on for a world class career.

And his brother, Tony Toko, was the reverend, the priest at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic Church.

And so that, the three of us sort of got things going.

- Do you bring different guest artists to the chamber?

- We do, we bring probably 30 or 40 different artists every year.

We also use a number of the artists who are here in Detroit.

Detroit has a long history of being supportive of classical music.

It's one of the interesting things about our festival, is that most of the places that people go are on the coasts, or they're in the mountains, or someplace that are more resortish than Detroit.

It's one of the things I'm actually most proud of, of the festival, is it's in Detroit.

And historically, the places that we model after are in places like La Jolla, or Santa Fe, or Seattle.

And we've been able to do that here because we've been able to bring together a lot of the forces that we're here, and mix them with people all over the world.

So people like coming here, because we can really give them a great artistic product.

And there's a lovely market here of people who like the music, and all kinds of good things happen.

- So who is the artist that you brought?

- Well, Tessa Lark's an unusual character because she does a lot of things really well.

I mean, she's charming.

And she's a great stage presence and all of that.

But more, part of her background is in bluegrass.

So she has this unusual ability to play great classical music with any of the great artists of the world.

But she can also play really great bluegrass.

- [Satori] Tell us where the festival will be happening.

- Sure.

Well, it's the opening.

There's a sort of a soft opening on June 10th in Ann Arbor at the Kerrytown Concert House.

But our big opening is on June 11th at The Seligman Center at Detroit Country Day School.

- Thank you Maury, for being here.

- Sure.

Thank you for the time.

- And now we'll go to the stage, and hear Tessa Lark.

I know you're excited to see her.

(classical violin music) (music stops) (classical violin music) (music stops) (classical violin music) (music stops) (classical violin music) (music stops) (classical violin music) (music stops) (classical violin music) Welcome back, everybody from that breathtaking, awesome, thought provoking, chill bumping performance that Tessa Lark gave.

Welcome, Tessa.

- Thank you.

Great to be here.

- Oh my goodness.

When did you start putting your fingers on those strings?

- Gosh, it's been a while.

I started when I was six and a half years old.

I played piano when I started out in.

When I was in diapers, apparently, my parents said that I was picking out tunes that I would hear on the radio, so they knew I loved music.

I wanted to play the piano, but we didn't have a real one.

The teacher we found suggested I start, in the meantime, on the violin.

And I declared myself a violinist six months in, haven't looked back.

- And I was wondering, did you do any original pieces in this concert that you gave us?

- Yeah.

I'm new to composing, so I just put a little.

I snuck a little minute of my music.

The piece that I wrote and played is called "Ysaye Shuffle", because it's based off of motives from the "Ysaye Sonata Number Four", which I also played today.

The final movement of that, it starts with this little lick that I use verbatim in the piece.

And the idea is that, in maybe an encore setting, or in a setting of violinists who definitely are familiar with that "Ysaye Sonata" You start it, and they'll think, oh, she's playing the Ysaye.

But then very quickly, like five notes in, it's a pretty vulgar slide, then it makes it.

I make it clear that this is not Ysaye.

And shuffle is just a term that fiddlers use for a repetitive bowing pattern.

And so I use all sorts of different shuffle patterns to take Ysaye's motive, and change it around into a more fiddly style piece.

- And what songs did you select for us today, and why?

- Yeah.

I selected "Box Preludio" from his "Partita Number Three in E Major", is one of the first pieces of Bach that I learned.

And then the full "Ysaye Sonata Number Four".

And finally my piece, "Ysaye Shuffle".

I chose these because a couple of them are things that I've actually presented through Great Lakes at some of the festivals.

And Great Lakes being so generous, in offering all of their artists to sort of share what they feel most comfortable presenting.

- So is there a difference between fiddle and violin?

It's the same instrument, but different styles of music.

Is that it?

- Yeah.

I was just thinking of all the different jokes of fiddle versus violin.

One is that a violin has strings on it, and a fiddle has strangs.

(laughing) Or a fiddle burns longer than a violin, and all these, you know, all these things.

But yes, it's the same instrument, and it's simply stylistic differences.

- [Satori] What kind of impact do you hope to make with the people listening to your music?

- I simply hope in that moment that folks can be transcended from the day today struggles that we all have.

And I've noticed, at least from my own observation, that once people have their essentials, their shelter, their food, and a community, the next thing they want is something like music, something to just uplift them.

So that's my general hope.

- Thank you, Tessa Lark.

Extraordinary, extraordinary performance.

- Thank you.

- And thank you, everybody, for joining us at "Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove".

See you next week.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Detroit Performs" is provided by The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, the Kresge Foundation, the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (calm piano music)