Our Musicians

Violinist Tarn Travers performs regularly around the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and an orchestral player. In 2001, he was a prizewinner at the Heifetz Guarneri auditions, which led to a performance on the historic “ex-David” Guarneri, the favored violin of Jascha Heifetz. Tarn spent three years as a violinist in the New World Symphony, where he often led the orchestra as concertmaster, and also appeared as soloist three times, once in every season spent with that orchestra, in the music of Béla Bartók, Ramiro Cortés, and Chen Yi. A member of the Chicago-based contemporary group Ensemble Dal Niente, recent performance highlights include a concerto appearance at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, a chamber music appearance at the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C., and a residency at Harvard University.

Tarn’s most recent recordings include an appearance on Johann Johannsson’s recent album Orphée, released in September on the Deutsche Grammophone label as well as an upcoming release of works by George Lewis with Ensemble Dal Niente. Other recordings include a CD with the Luther College Piano Quartet, featuring works of Beethoven, Brahms, and Brooke Joyce, as well as releases a 2010 release of Maria Newman’s Triple Concerto, a work which he premiered in 2003, and Randy Bauer’s Half String Quartet, for violin and cello.

Tarn studied at San Francisco Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Stony Brook University, where his primary teachers included Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster William Preucil, concert violinists Camilla Wicks and Axel Strauss, and Emerson Quartet violinist Philip Setzer. Tarn serves as Concertmaster of Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and on faculty at DePauw University.