Alisa Weilerstein

Cello

"It’s a tricky balance to respect the knowledge that we have now about the way they supposedly played in those times, and yet be able to express ourselves freely and respectfully."

Alisa Weilerstein, New York Times, April 2017

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Alisa Weilerstein

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Biography

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Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2011. Today her career is truly global in scope, taking her to the most prestigious international venues for solo recitals, chamber concerts, and concerto collaborations.

„Weilerstein is truly a phenomenon.”UK Telegraph

With her multi-season solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS,” Weilerstein aims to reimagine the concert experience. Comprising six programs, each an hour long, the series sees her weave together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 new commissions in a multisensory production by Elkhanah Pulitzer. In the 2024-25 season, she premieres FRAGMENTS 3 at San Diego’s Jacobs Music Center, gives the New York premieres of FRAGMENTS 2 and 3 at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and performs the complete cycle at Charleston’s Spoleto Festival USA.

„Weilerstein is a throwback to an earlier age of classical performers: not content merely to serve as a vessel for the composer’s wishes, she inhabits a piece fully and turns it to her own ends”New York Times

Weilerstein regularly appears alongside preeminent conductors with the world’s major orchestras. Versatile across the cello repertoire’s full breadth, she is a leading exponent of its greatest classics and an ardent proponent of contemporary music, who has premiered important new concertos by Pascal Dusapin, Matthias Pintscher, and Joan Tower. In 2024-25, she brings to life three more concertos, premiering Thomas Larcher’s with the New York Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony, Richard Blackford’s with the Czech Philharmonic, and Gabriela Ortiz’s with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at L.A.’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Bogotá’s Teatro Mayor, and Carnegie Hall. Her other 2024-25 highlights include season-opening concerts with the San Diego and Kansas City Symphonies; returns to the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras; and duo recitals with Inon Barnatan at Stanford University and in Boston’s Celebrity Series.

„Weilerstein’s cello is her id. She doesn’t give the impression that making music involves will at all. She and the cello seem simply to be one and the same”Los Angeles Times

As an authority on Bach’s music for unaccompanied cello, in spring 2020 Weilerstein released a best-selling recording of his solo suites for Pentatone, streamed them in her innovative #36DaysOfBach project, and deconstructed his beloved G-major prelude in a Vox.com video, now viewed more than 2.2 million times. Her discography also includes chart-topping albums and the winner of BBC Music’s “Recording of the Year” award.

Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at nine years old, Weilerstein is a staunch advocate for the T1D community. She lives with her husband, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, and their two young children.

2024/2025

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by artist management.

Contacts: Juliane Scotney, Rebekka Aebi

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Programme

2026 / 2027

You’ll find the current programs in the IMPRESARIUM of the 26/27 season

2025 / 2026

Schedule

04/06/2025
19:00 h

TonHalle München
München, Germany

Alisa Weilerstein, Mitglieder des Symphonieorchesters des Bayerischen Rundfunks

05/06/2025
20:00 h

Residenz, Herkulessaal
München, Germany

Alisa Weilerstein, Alan Gilbert, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

06/06/2025
20:00 h

Residenz, Herkulessaal
München, Germany

Alisa Weilerstein, Alan Gilbert, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Discography

Shostakovich: Cello Concertos

Dmitri Shostakovich
Cello Concertos No. 1 & 2

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Pablo Heras-Casado - Conductor

Decca, DDD, 2015

Rachmaninov & Chopin

Sergey Vasil'yevich Rachmaninov
Sonata in G minor for Cello & Piano, Op. 19
Vocalise, Op 34, No. 14

Frédéric Chopin
Sonata in G minor for Cello & Piano, Op. 65
12 Etudes, Op. 25
Introduction & Polonaise Brillante, Op. 3

Inon Barnatan - Piano

DECCA, 2017

Elgar, Carter & Bruch: CelloCconcertos

Edward Elgar
Cello Concerto op. 85

Elliot Carter
Cello Concerto

Max Bruch
Kol Nidrei, Op. 47 for Cello & Orchestra

Staatskapelle Berlin
Daniel Barenboim - Conductor

Decca, DDD, 2011

Alisa Weilerstein - Solo

Zoltán Kodály
Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8

Osvaldo Golijov
Omaramor for Solo Cello

Gaspar Cassado
Suite for Solo Cello

Bright Sheng
Seven Tunes Heard in China

Decca, 2014

Dvorak: Cello Concerto

Antonin Dvorak
Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Rondo in G minor, Op. 94
Silent Woods, Op. 68/5

Anna Polonsky - Piano
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Jiri Belohlavek - Conductor

Decca, 2013

Elgar: Cello Concertos

Richard Wagner
Prelude of "Meistersinger" (Act III)

Edward Elgar
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 85

Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 1

Berliner Philharmoniker
Daniel Barenboim - Conductor

EuroArts, 2011

Weilerstein & Weilerstein

Niccolo Paganini
Variations on "Preghiera" From Rossini's "Mosè", for Violin & Guitar (or Piano), MS 23

Antonín Dvořák
Silent Woods (Klid), for Cello & Piano (arr. from "From the Bohemian Forest", B. 133), B. 173 (Op. 68/5)

Alberto Ginastera
Pampeana No.2, Rhapsody for Cello & Piano, Op. 21

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Songs without Words for Cello & Piano in D major, Op. 109

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pezzo capriccioso, for Cello & Orchestra (or Cello & Piano) in B minor, Op. 62

Gabriel Fauré
Après un rêve ("Dans un sommeil"), song for Voice & Piano, Op. 7/1

Leoš Janáček
Pohádka (Fairy Tale), for Cello & Piano ("The Story of Tsar Berendyey"), JW 7/5

Camille Saint-Saëns
The Swan (from "Carnival of the Animals"), original (for 2 Pianos & Ensemble) and arrangements

Manuel de Falla
Suite Populaire Espagnole, for Violin & Piano (arr. from "Popular Spanish Songs" by Kochanski)

Vivan Hornik Weilerstein - Piano

EMI classics, 2000