Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, cellist Tanya Tomkins is equally at home on Baroque and modern instruments. She has performed on many chamber music series to critical acclaim, including the Frick Collection, “Great Performances” at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, San Francisco Performances, and the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal.
She is renowned in particular for her interpretation of the Bach Cello Suites, having recorded them for the Avie label and performed them many times at venues such as New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, Seattle Early Music Guild, Vancouver Early Music Society, and The Library of Congress.
Tanya is one of the principal cellists in San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Portland Baroque Orchestra. She is also a member of several groups including Voices of Music and the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio (with Monica Huggett and Eric Zivian). On modern cello, she is a long-time participant at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, Music in the Vineyards in Napa, and a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. As an educator, Tanya has given master classes at Yale, Juilliard, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and is devoted to mentoring the next generation of chamber musicians through the Apprenticeship Program at the Valley of the Moon Music Festival.
Period Instruments
For over a decade, Tanya and Eric have immersed themselves in Classical and Romantic music on period instruments: recording, performing, and teaching these pieces from an historic perspective. These well-known pieces can be experienced in a completely new way, not only through the unique qualities of period instruments but also through a full understanding of period style.
That led to the idea of starting a music festival devoted to performing and teaching this repertoire on period instruments. Valley of the Moon Music Festival is not just an exciting series of summer concerts in the beautiful town of Sonoma, but also a place for emerging musicians to thrive as they incorporate this chamber music into their professional lives.
