June 23: New York Premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s PULSE Feat. Violinist Tessa Lark with The Knights Conducted by Eric Jacobsen – Presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Photo of Tessa Lark by Lauren Desberg available here & Lisa Bielawa by Shawn Poynter available here.
New York Premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s Violin Concerto PULSE
on June 23, 2026
Featuring Violin Soloist Tessa Lark with The Knights
Conducted by Co-Artistic Director Eric Jacobsen
Presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 7:30pm
Naumburg Bandshell, on the Concert Ground, Central Park (72nd St, mid-park)
Free and Open to the Public
More Information
Lisa Bielawa: www.lisabielawa.net | Tessa Lark: www.tessalark.com
New York, NY – Composer Lisa Bielawa’s new violin concerto, PULSE, will receive its New York premiere performed by GRAMMY®-nominated orchestral collective The Knights conducted by Co-Artistic Director Eric Jacobsen on Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 7:30pm at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park (mid-park at 72nd St.) presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts. The featured violin soloist will be Tessa Lark, for whom the piece was written. Lark is winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Int’l Competition Winner (2012).
The Knights’ program will also include
Christina Courtin: Rhapsody on being Giant Proof
Lisa Bielawa: Violin Concerto No. 2: Pulse
Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings
Caroline Shaw: The Mountain that Loved a Bird
Paul Simon (arr. Colin Jacobsen): American Tune
Of her new violin concerto, Bielawa writes, “This concerto was conceived as a way of keeping my finger on the pulse of American life during a period of seismic change and self-examination. Composed over a six-month period starting just before the 2024 presidential election, it is also informed by my immersion during this time in our sentimental history as told through our traditional musics. Tessa Lark’s artistry draws from multiple musical traditions, from Old-time to jazz to the classical avant-garde. I have had the enviable opportunity to hear Tessa play in the Smoky Mountains with Appalachian traditional musicians, at the Blue Note in midtown Manhattan, and on concert stages in concertos and chamber music both new and old.”
Lark, for whom Bielawa wrote this concerto, is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time, consistently praised by critics and audiences for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, and musical elegance. Increasingly in demand in the classical realm, in 2020 she was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. 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.
PULSE was co-commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation, Library of Congress; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; and Louisville Orchestra; with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Santa Fe Pro Musica. Support has also been provided by James Rosenfield, Justus Schlichting, Kari and Jon Ullman, New Music USA's Amplifying Voices Program, and the Loghaven Artist Residency.
In addition to PULSE, Lisa Bielawa’s 2025-2026 season features more bold programming, new collaborations, and world premieres of several new works. Knoxville Broadcast, a new installment in Bielawa’s Broadcast series, premiered on October 17 and 18, 2025 in Knoxville, TN in three site-specific performances at Knoxville’s World’s Fair Park presented by Big Ears. On February 26, 2026, Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York presented a Composer Portrait concert dedicated exclusively to Bielawa’s music, including the world premiere of Balloon Variations, a new work, all performed by Contemporaneous led by David Bloom, with Bielawa singing. She is currently at work on her Guggenheim Fellowship project, a hybrid film and live action opera called La Ballonniste or Balloon: A Hot Air Opera – a heartfelt comedy centering on 18th century French opera singer Élisabeth Tible, the first woman to fly in a hot air balloon. Bielawa is also a Howard Hanson Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music for this academic year. Her next “spatial symphony,” Rochester Broadcast, will be performed outdoors at Parcel 5 in Rochester on April 18, 2026.
Bielawa and The Knights have a long running collaborative relationship of more than 15 years, including performing and recording of her work Chance Encounter with soprano Susan Narucki, who co-conceived the work with Bielawa. The Knights also co-commissioned Bielawa’s Tempelhof Etude (2011) and premiered the work at the Naumburg Bandshell in June 2011. In 2016, The Knights commissioned Bielawa’s My Outstretched Hand, a full choral-orchestral work, which they premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center as part of the NY Phil Biennial. In 2019, The Knights commissioned an orchestral arrangement of Bielawa’s chamber work, Fictional Migrations, which they also premiered presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in June 2019.
Lisa Bielawa is a Guggenheim Fellow and Rome Prize winner who takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. She has received awards and fellowships from the Koussevitzky Foundation, American Academy of Arts & Letters, OPERA America, American Antiquarian Society, Loghaven Artist Residency, and was part of the inaugural Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps. She received a Los Angeles Area Emmy nomination for her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser. Bielawa’s music has been premiered at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, SHIFT Festival, National Cathedral, Rouen Opera, MAXXI Museum in Rome, and Helsinki Music Center, among others. Orchestras that have championed her music include The Knights, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, ROCO, and the Orlando Philharmonic. Premieres of her work have been commissioned and presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Rider, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Radio France, Yerevan Concert Hall in Armenia, the Venice Architectural Biennale, American Music Week in Salzburg, the INFANT Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, and more. Bielawa consistently incorporates community-making as part of her artistic vision. She has created music for public spaces in Lower Manhattan, a bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville, KY, the banks of the Tiber River in Rome, on the sites of former airfields in Berlin and San Francisco, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the pandemic, Bielawa cultivated a virtual community using submitted testimonies and recorded voices from six continents through her work Broadcast from Home, now archived by the Library of Congress.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Composer Lisa Bielawa’s new violin concerto, PULSE, will have its New York premiere performed by GRAMMY®-nominated orchestral collective The Knights, Conducted by co-Artistic Director Eric Jacobsen, with violin soloist Tessa Lark, on Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 7:30pm at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. The free concert is part of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts. The program will also include Rhapsody on being Giant Proof by Christina Courtin, Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, The Mountain that Loved a Bird by Caroline Shaw, and American Tune by Paul Simon (arr. Colin Jacobsen).
Concert details:
What: PULSE - a new violin concerto by Lisa Bielawa - New York Premiere
Who: The Knights, conducted by Co-Artistic Director Eric Jacobsen, with Violin Soloist Tessa Lark
When: Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: Naumburg Bandshell, on the Concert Ground, Central Park (72nd St, mid-park)
Free and Open to the Public
More information: https://naumburgconcerts.org/upcoming/theknights