Alisa Weilerstein, Cello

Biography

American
cellist Alisa Weilerstein has attracted widespread attention for
playing that combines a natural virtuosic command and technical
precision with impassioned musicianship.

At
only 26 years old, she is already a veteran on the classical music
scene having performed with the nation's top orchestras, given recitals
in music capitals throughout the U.S. and Europe, and having regularly
appeared at prestigious festivals.  She is also a dedicated performer
of chamber music, having grown up immersed in the classical music
culture with a family of musicians with whom she collaborated from an
early age.

The
intensity and passion of her playing have regularly been lauded and
even compared to that of a rock star. This past season the Toronto Star wrote "Weilerstein plays classical music, but with the depth of soul and raw emotional energy of a diehard rocker" and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote
"The hallmarks of her phrasing were precision and intelligence...but her
playing was far from academic, even tapping into some energetic,
rock-inspired bowing in the finale [of the Haydn D Major Cello
Concerto].

During the 2008-09 season Alisa Weilerstein, who was recently awarded
Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal award, will make her debuts with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Hans Graf, and the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra led by Mark Elder. She will also perform with the National
Symphony Orchestra under Itzhak Perlman, the New York Philharmonic
under Lorin Maazel, the Cleveland Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot, the
Houston Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan, and the Pittsburgh
Symphony under Manfred Honeck at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.,
among other orchestral engagements.

Following her New York premiere performance of Osvaldo Golijov's Azul at the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2006, The New York Times called
her playing "staggering."  This season she will again perform the work
with the New World Symphony under Marin Alsop, The Cleveland Orchestra
led by Ludovic Morlot, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Louis
Langrée, the Colorado Symphony under Jeffrey Kahane, and in
Switzerland with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra led by Paul Goodwin.
Ms. Weilerstein will also give several recitals throughout the U.S.,
including Carnegie's Zankel Hall in New York and San Francisco. Also in
New York this season, she will perform chamber music with Gil Shaham
and Friends at Carnegie's Zankel Hall.  Abroad she will perform with
the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra
Lisbon, Slovenia Philharmonic, and will give several recital tours in
Italy.

During the 2008 summer season Ms. Weilerstein will perform chamber music at Spoleto Festival USA, Golijov's Azul
at the Aspen Music Festival, and perform in the opening night gala
concert, as well as in recital, at the Caramoor Festival in the U.S.
Abroad she performs at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Verbier
Festival and will perform the Elgar Cello Concerto on a month-long tour
of Asia with the Asian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Richard Pontzious.

Last season Ms.
Weilerstein performed with the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel
at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and with the Detroit Symphony under Sir
Andrew Davis, the Pittsburgh Symphony under Marek Janowski, the San
Diego Symphony under Jahja Ling, the San Francisco Symphony under David
Robertson, and the Toronto Symphony under Peter Oundjian. She gave
several recitals throughout the U.S., including her debut with the
Celebrity Series in Boston and at the Library of Congress in
Washington, DC.  Abroad she performed with the NDR Hamburg under
Manfred Honeck and the Orchestre National de Lyon conducted by Jesus
Lopez-Cobos.

Ms. Weilerstein has
been continually engaged by orchestras across the U.S. and has
performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony,
Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota
Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic,
Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony,
the Seattle Symphony  the Orchestra of St. Luke's, among others.  In
Europe she has performed with the Barcelona Symphony, Bournemouth
Symphony, Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, Leipziger Bachkollegium, NDR Hamburg, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. 
She makes regular appearances at festivals such as the Aspen Music
Festival, Bad Kissingen, Blossom Music Festival, Caramoor, Green Music
Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein, Spoleto
USA, Vail, Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, and the Verbier Festival.

Ms. Weilerstein has
given recitals in music centers across the U.S., including Atlanta,
Baltimore, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Portland, New York and San
Francisco.  She performed at The Louvre in her Paris recital debut in
September 1999.  Other notable engagements have included an eight-city
tour of Japan, featuring a Suntory Hall performance in March 1999, a
concert tour of Australia, and Florida tours with the Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center in 2000 and 2002.

In 2008 Alisa
Weilerstein was awarded Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal prize for
exceptional achievement. She was named the winner of the 2006 Leonard
Bernstein Award, which she received at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival
in Germany, was the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2000
and was selected for two prestigious young artists programs in 2000-01,
the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) "Rising Stars" recital
series and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music
Society Two.  As part of the ECHO series in 2000-01, Ms. Weilerstein
gave recitals at seven celebrated concert halls in Europe (Symphony
Hall in Birmingham, Wigmore Hall in London, Athens Concert Hall, the
Cologne Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Palais des
Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam) as well as
at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), which nominated her to be part
of the series.  Ms. Weilerstein also released an acclaimed recording on
EMI Classics' "Debut" series in 2000 including works by Paganini,
Dvorák, Ginastera, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Janácek, Saint-Saëns,
Fauré and De Falla.

Having
begun playing the cello at age 4, Ms. Weilerstein performed her first
public concert six months later. She often plays with her parents,
Donald and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, as the Weilerstein Trio, which is
the Trio-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory in Boston.  Her
Cleveland Orchestra debut was in October 1995, at age 13, playing the
Tchaikovsky "Rococo" Variations. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with
the New York Youth Symphony in March 1997.  Ms. Weilerstein is a
graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of
Music, where she studied with Richard Weiss.  In May 2004, she
graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in Russian
History.