Carnegie Hall

Ensemble Signal is a New York–based ensemble dedicated to offering the broadest possible audience access to a diverse range of contemporary works through performance, commissioning, recording, and education. Signal was founded by co–artistic director and executive director Lauren Radnofsky and co–artistic director and conductor Brad Lubman. Since its debut at the Bang on a Can Marathon in 2008, Signal has performed more than 350 concerts, premiered numerous works, and co-produced 10 recordings. Signal has appeared at the Lincoln Center Festival, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Big Ears Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, Library of Congress, Washington Performing Arts, Cal Performances, Tanglewood Music Festival of Contemporary Music, Ojai Music Festival, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. The ensemble works directly with nearly all the composers whose works it performs in order to offer the most authentic interpretations, a list that includes Hans Abrahamsen, Unsuk Chin, Michael Gordon, Georg Friedrich Haas, Oliver Knussen, Helmut Lachenmann, David Lang, Hilda Paredes, Augusta Read Thomas, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, and Julia Wolfe. Its recording of Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, released in May 2015 on Harmonia Mundi, received a Diapason d’Or and appeared on the Billboard classical crossover charts. Recent highlights include the world premiere and 130 performances of Reich’s Reich/Richter for large ensemble with artwork and film by Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz in the inaugural season of The Shed (spring 2019), and the US premieres of Reich’s Runner at venues across the country (2017–2018). Upcoming highlights in 2022 include the US premieres of music by Luca Francesconi and George Lewis, and the world premiere of a new work for ensemble and electronics by Darian Donovan Thomas, as well as workshop performances with the next generation of composers.

Conductor and composer Brad Lubman has gained widespread recognition for his versatility, commanding technique, and insightful interpretations over more than two decades. A frequent guest conductor, Mr. Lubman has led many of the world’s most distinguished orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, SWR Sinfonieorchester, WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Brussels Philharmonic, and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, he has worked with some of the most important European and American ensembles for contemporary music, including Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Klangforum Wien, and Steve Reich and Musicians. He has conducted at new-music festivals across Europe, including those in Lucerne, Salzburg, Berlin, Huddersfield, Paris, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Oslo. 

Mr. Lubman was the recipient of the 2019 Ditson Conductor’s Award in recognition of his distinguished record of performing and championing contemporary American music. He is founding co–artistic director and conductor of Ensemble Signal. Since its debut in 2008, the ensemble has performed more than 350 concerts and co-produced 10 recordings.

Mr. Lubman is on the faculty at the Eastman School of Music and the Bang on a Can Summer Institute.

Violinist Tessa Lark 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. In 2020, she was nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and received one of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist awards, the special Hunt Family Award. Other recent honors include a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Silver Medal in the Ninth Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition. 

Ms. Lark solos regularly with many of the major orchestras around the world, from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to the Seattle Symphony, and has appeared in recital in such prestigious venues and series as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Carnegie Hall’s Distinctive Debuts series in Weill Recital Hall.

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. Sky, a bluegrass-inspired violin concerto written for Ms. Lark by Michael Torke, earned her a Grammy nomination and Torke a finalist distinction for the Pulitzer Prize.

Ms. Lark is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and completed her artist diploma at The Juilliard School. She plays a circa-1600 G. P. Maggini violin on loan from an anonymous donor through the Stradivari Society.