TESSA PETERSEN MusB(Hons), PG Dip (RCM) Tessa Petersen graduated from the University of Otago and led the New Zealand Youth Orchestra before continuing her studies in London at the Royal College of Music under a prestigious British Commonwealth Scholarship. She went on to play and tour with leading chamber orchestras in the UK and Europe. Moving to the USA in 1993, Tessa established a career over more than a decade as an orchestral and chamber player, concertmaster, recitalist, adjudicator and teacher. Appointed as Executant Lecturer in Violin at the University of Otago in 2008, Tessa performs regularly around New Zealand and internationally with pianist John Van Buskirk as "La Belle Alliance", is an examiner for the New Zealand Music Examinations Board, and has been an adjudicator for the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest. RELEASE-The Mozart Fellowship, their CD of works for solo violin and violin/piano by New Zealand composers, was released by Ode records in 2012 to critical acclaim and has featured several times on Radio NZ.