Alisa Weilerstein

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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 with all the preeminent conductors and orchestras worldwide.

„Weilerstein is truly a phenomenon.”UK Telegraph

With her multi-season new project, “FRAGMENTS,” Weilerstein aims to rethink the concert experience and broaden the tent for classical music. A multisensory production for solo cello, the six-chapter series sees her weave together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 new commissions. After premiering the first two chapters in Toronto in early 2023, with subsequent performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall and beyond, she looks forward to touring all six chapters in seasons to come. Weilerstein recently premiered Joan Tower’s new cello concerto, A New Day, at the Colorado Music Festival. The work was co-commissioned with the Detroit Symphony; the Cleveland Orchestra, where Weilerstein performed it last fall; and the National Symphony, where she reprised it in May. An ardent proponent of contemporary music, she has also premiered and championed important new works by composers including Pascal Dusapin, Osvaldo Golijov and Matthias Pintscher.

„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

Already an authority on Bach’s music for unaccompanied cello, in spring 2020 Weilerstein released a best-selling recording of his solo suites on the Pentatone label, streamed them in her innovative #36DaysOfBach project, and deconstructed his beloved G-major prelude in a Vox.com video, viewed more than two million times. Her discography also includes chart-topping albums and the winner of BBC Music’s “Recording of the Year” award, while other career milestones include a performance at the White House for President and Mrs.Obama. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at nine years old, Weilerstein is a staunch advocate for the T1Dcommunity. She lives with her husband, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, and their two young children.

„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

In the current 22/23 season, Weilerstein returns to longtime partner orchestras, including the NDR Elbphilarmonie Orchester under Alan Gilbert, the Rundfunk-Symphonieorchester Wien under Jakub Hrůša, the Dresdner Philharmonie under Thomas Dausgaard, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä, the New York Philharmonic under Nathalie Stutzmann, the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel.

2022/2023

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

Contacts: Juliane Scotney, Juliane Doiwa

2024 / 2025

You’ll find the current programs in the IMPRESARIUM of the 24/25 season

2023 / 2024

Solo
Fragments, Unified

A series of six solo concerts of 80 minutes each, each comprising a Bach suite, 20th century classics and 18 brand new works. These are meant to represent our world today: socially and ethnically diverse, with equal gender representation. Among others, they include Osvaldo Golijov, Allison Loggins-Hull, Reinaldo Moya, Matthias Pintscher and Joan Tower.

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