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 ... read full bio

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 has 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 conducted by Hans Graf, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder. She will also perform with the National Symphony Orchestra under Itzhak Perlman, the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel, 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 in San Francisco. Also at Zankel Hall this season, she will perform in a program of chamber music with Gil Shaham and Friends.  Abroad she will perform with the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, 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 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 and 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. 

Ms. Weilerstein has given recitals in music centers across the U.S. and 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.  She makes regular appearances at prestigious festivals throughout the U.S. and in Europe.

In 2008 Alisa Weilerstein was awarded Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal prize for exceptional achievement and she was named the winner of the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award, which she received at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany.  She received 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.

Alisa Weilerstein began playing the cello at just four years old after her grandmother assembled a makeshift instrument out of cereal boxes for her to play with while she was sick with the chicken pox.  She showed a natural affinity for the instrument and 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. For more information on Ms. Weilerstein, please visit www.alisaweilerstein.com.