Tekla Cunningham, violin and director

Praised as "a consummate musician whose flowing solos and musical gestures are a joy to watch", and whose performances have been described as "ravishingly beautiful" and "stellar" and lauded for " long, amber-tinted lines and pertly articulated phrases", violinist Tekla Cunningham enjoys a multi-faceted career as a chamber musician, concertmaster, soloist and educator devoted to music of the baroque, classical and romantic eras. She is co-artistic director and concertmaster of Pacific MusicWorks, and is an artist-in-residence at the University of Washington. She founded and directs the Whidbey Island Music Festival, now entering its sixteenth season, producing and presenting vibrant period-instrument performances of music from Monteverdi to Beethoven and beyond and plays regularly as concertmaster and principal player with the American Bach Soloists in California.

Tekla is continually inspired by the expressive and communicative possibilities of the gestures and rhetoric of baroque and classical music. A passionate chamber musician, she founded the Novello Quartet which for over ten years explored the music of Josef Haydn and his contemporaries with Cynthia Freivogel, Anthony Martin and Elisabeth Reed. With La Monica Ensemble, she explored chamber music of the 17th century, with performances praised as "sizzling" and for their "pitch-perfect timing".  In a performance of Mozart's g-minor string quintet at the Valley of the Moon festival " Ms. Cunningham’s violin playing was unutterably sweet and rich...Ms. Cunningham’s playing took the lead, and the quartet in turn followed. The depth of sorrow in this interpretation was heartrending. The concluding movement, adagio-allegro, began with a lovely singing and deftly phrased lament by Ms. Cunningham...it was an inspired and inspiring performance".  

 She has appeared as concertmaster/leader or soloist with the American Bach Soloists, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, and Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Pacific MusicWorks, TENET and has played with Apollo’s Fire, Los Angeles Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and at the Berkeley, Carmel Bach, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Indianapolis, Oregon Bach, Vancouver Bach, Savannah, Bloomington Festivals and Valley of the Moon festivals, and on Early Music series’ from Music Before 1800, Boston Early Music Festival, Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque, Houston Early Music, San Francisco Early Music Society, Vancouver Early Music, Early Music of the Islands, Portland Baroque.

Tekla's first solo album of Stylus Phantasticus repertoire from Italy and Austria, from Farina, Fonatana, Uccellini to Biber, Schmelzer and Albertini, with an extravagant continuo group of Stephen Stubbs (baroque guitar and chittarone), Maxine Eilander (baroque harp), Williams Skeen (bass violin), Henry Lebedinsky (harpsichord and organ) will be released in 2021 on Reference Records. She can be heard on live and studio recordings including American Bach Soloists, Disney's Casanova soundtrack, Apollo's Fire, Philharmonia Baroque, Tafelmusik, The Amorous Lyre, La Monica’s recording of of Merula and his contemporaries, Haydn’s op. 50 string quartets with The Novello Quartet, Mozart Flute Quartets (with Janet See, Laurie Wells and Tanya Tomkins) and many more.

A dedicated teacher, Tekla co-directs the Baroque Ensemble at the University of Washington School of Music where she worked closely with Dr. Carole Terry up until her retirement and where she also recently taught the modern violin class as sabbatical replacement for Ron Patterson. She has taught at Cornish College of the Arts, and presented masterclasses at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and at Pittsburgh State University in KS.

Tekla received her undergraduate degree in History and German Literature at Johns Hopkins University while attending Peabody Conservatory where she first studied baroque violin with Web Wiggins. She studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna Austria with Josef Sivo and Ortwin Ottmaier, and earned a Master's Degree in violin performance at the San Francisco Conservatory with Ian Swenson and chamber music studies with Paul Hersh, Mark Sokol and Bonnie Hampton. She studied Suzuki violin pedagogy with Cathy Lee in San Francisco, and is currently enrolled in a 200 YTT Yoga Teacher Training program at Seattle Yoga Arts.

Tekla lives in Seattle and Whidbey Island with her husband, her sons Sebastian and Henry and her quarantine puppy Zilphie.

Tekla plays on a violin made by Sanctus Seraphin in Venice in 1746.