Alisa Weilerstein

Alisa Weilerstein
Born (1982-04-18) April 18, 1982
Rochester, New York
Genres classical
Instruments cello
Associated acts Weilerstein Trio
Website www.alisaweilerstein.com
Notable instruments
1790 William Forster Cello
Camille Saint-Saëns's "Le cygne" (The Swan)
Weilerstein and Jason Yoder (marimba) perform Camille Saint-Saëns's "Le cygne" (The Swan) from The Carnival of the Animals at the White House Evening of Classical Music (2009-11-04)
Camille Saint-Saëns's "Le cygne" (The Swan)
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Alisa Weilerstein (born April 14, 1982) is an American classical cellist. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.[1]

Life and career

Weilerstein was born in Rochester, New York.[2] She started playing the cello at age four. She made her debut at age 13 with the Cleveland Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. As a soloist she has performed with a number of other major orchestras on four continents. She also is active in chamber music and performs with her parents, violinist Donald Weilerstein,[3] (the founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet) and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, as the Weilerstein Trio. The trio currently resides at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Her brother is the violinist and conductor Joshua Weilerstein (born in 1987). She is married to Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare.[4]

A champion of contemporary music, Weilerstein has worked extensively with composers Osvaldo Golijov and Lera Auerbach, as well as with Philadelphia composer Joseph Hallman.[5] She performed the New York premiere of Golijov's Cello Concerto "Azul" at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, the world premiere of Auerbach's 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano at the Caramoor International Music Festival, Auerbach's transcription of Shostakovich Op. 34 for Cello and Piano at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and Hallman's Cello Concerto with the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.[6]

Weilerstein has received a number of honors. In 2000-2001 she won an Avery Fisher Career Grant and was selected to play in the ECHO "Rising Stars" program and Chamber Music Society II, the young artists' program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2006 she was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Prize at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. In 2011 she received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant".[7]

In 2004 she graduated from Columbia University in New York City with a BA in Russian history.

She plays a 1790 William Forster Cello.

Discography

Media

Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 – 4. Finale, Allegro assai appassionato
Joshua Bell, Awadagin Pratt, and Weilerstein perform Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 – 4. Finale: Allegro assai appassionato, at the White House Evening of Classical Music on November 4, 2009.
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 – 4. Finale: Allegro assai appassionato
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    • References

    1. ↑ "MacArthur Fellows Program: Meet the 2011 Fellows". September 20, 2011. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
    2. ↑ "Alisa Weilerstein in rehearsal with Jonathan Gilad at the 2008 Verbier Festival". YouTube. 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
    3. ↑ "Donald Weilerstein Biography - The Banff Centre". Banffcentre.ca. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
    4. ↑ "He's got rock star looks and a very famous cellist wife ... meet the conductor about to make a baton charge on the Ulster Orchestra". Belfast Telegraph. 2014-09-26.
    5. ↑ "Joseph Hallman". compositiontoday.com.
    6. ↑ "The St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic | Concert Seasons | 2007-08". St-pcp.org. Retrieved 2012-11-26.
    7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110923181310/http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.7731019/k.A094/Alisa_Weilerstein.htm. Archived from the original on September 23, 2011. Retrieved September 20, 2011. Missing or empty |title= (help)

    External links

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