Meet the Whidbey Island Music Festival team
Photo by Teresa Tam
Meet the Founder, 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 launched a new musical project, the Seattle Bach Festival. 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.
Meet our Board of Directors
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Meade Brown, Jr.
Board President
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Sarah Lyngra
Vice President
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Karen Heather
Secretary
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Janinne Brunyee
Treasurer
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Jody Heiken
Board member
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Tekla Cunningham
Board member
We proudly partner with
Cynthia Albers
Cynthia Albers
Box office and volunteer manager
Cynthia Albers has served in various arts management and administrative roles since 1992, including all aspects of concert management, administration-board communications and music education programs development. In her previous hometown of Sebastopol, California, she served on the board of directors for the Sister City exchange program with Japan and Ukraine, and was appointed to the city-sponsored Zero Waste subcommittee as a liaison to the public regarding updated recycling laws and practices. On Whidbey Island, Ms. Albers has worked for the Arts Council, the Whidbey Island Music Festival, and offers private instruction in violin and viola at her Coupeville home. She holds a M.Mus. degree from Indiana University (Jacobs) School of Music, and performed for many years with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and American Bach Soloists. www.albersviolinstudio.net