Tekla Cunningham, violin and director

Baroque violinist Tekla Cunningham specializes in bringing the music of the baroque, classical and romantic eras to life with vivid and expressive historically informed performances. Praised as “a consummate musician whose flowing solos and musical gestures are a joy to watch”, her performances have been described as “ravishingly beautiful” and “stellar”.

In 2024 she is launching a new musical project, the Seattle Bach Festival, serving the greater Seattle area with great performances of the masterworks of JS Bach and pearls of the Baroque. She is Artist-in-Residence and director of the Baroque Ensemble at the University of Washington and founder and director of the Whidbey Island Music Festival (founded in 2006) and enjoyed a long association with Pacific MusicWorks as violinist and co-artistic director with her colleagues Stephen Stubbs, Henry Lebedinsky and Maxine Eilander.

Her new release “Stylus Phantasticus” with Pacific MusicWorks is delighting critics. “Tekla is a marvel…an endlessly songful bird”. Early Music America describes the recording as “played with verve, the music presented here reaffirms the old notion that instrumental music can have the flair of any theatrical spectacle. … a stellar vessel for the boldest showmanship.”

Tekla studied at Johns Hopkins University, Peabody Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna and the San Francisco Conservatory. Tekla plays on a violin made by Sanctus Seraphin in Venice in 1746.