{"id":10670,"date":"2022-07-06T16:04:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T20:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=10670"},"modified":"2022-07-07T16:07:15","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T20:07:15","slug":"alisa-weilerstein-aims-to-rethink-concert-experience-broaden-tent-for-classical-music-with-fragments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/alisa-weilerstein-aims-to-rethink-concert-experience-broaden-tent-for-classical-music-with-fragments\/","title":{"rendered":"Alisa Weilerstein Aims to Rethink Concert Experience & Broaden Tent for Classical Music with \u201cFRAGMENTS\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Combining Bach with 27 New Commissions, Cellist\u2019s Multisensory New Solo Project Launches Next Year<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to experience music without borders. My hope is that people will listen with the idea that they\u2019re going to go on a wild adventure,\u201d says Alisa Weilerstein of \u201cFRAGMENTS.\u201d Perhaps her most ambitious and personal project to date, the new series sees her weave together the 36 movements of Bach\u2019s solo cello suites with 27 new commissions, to make six chapters, each an hour long, for solo cello. Under her curation, each chapter embraces a diverse range of compositional voices to trace a powerful and wholly original emotional arc. Performed without the distraction of pauses, applause or program details in a multisensory production by director Elkhanah Pulitzer and artistic producer and advisor Hanako Yamaguchi, with responsive lighting and architectural elements by Seth Reiser and original costumes by Carlos J. Soto, each chapter offers its audience an unmediated, immersive and visceral listening experience. After premiering the first two chapters early next year in Toronto (Jan 28), before giving performances in Southern California (March 10\u201314) and at New York\u2019s Carnegie Hall (April 1), Weilerstein looks forward to performing and touring all six chapters on both sides of the Atlantic in seasons to come. An initial tour to London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Prague and other major European centers is planned for the 2023-24 season, followed by performances at some of the continent\u2019s most prestigious summer festivals.<\/p>\n

Watch a preview of “FRAGMENTS.”<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the Bach suites have always been kind of a journey through life,\u201d says Weilerstein, who is widely recognized as a leading exponent of the composer\u2019s six suites for unaccompanied cello. Her live performances of the suites have been rapturously received on three continents, while her Billboard-bestselling recording of the complete set was nominated for a Gramophone Award. The set was released by Pentatone in 2020, and it was during that same difficult year of lockdowns and concert cancellations that the cellist first conceived of \u201cFRAGMENTS.\u201d She explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cI found myself wondering: \u2018How are we going to connect with one another when we come back?\u2019 This felt like a chance to rethink the way we experience music. I was also thinking about the ways we could improve our field without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I didn\u2019t want to sacrifice the quality of our product, but at the same time I\u2019m always trying to think about how to make the tent as big as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

She arrived at the idea of combining Bach\u2019s suites with new music, which allowed her to \u201ccelebrate the best of what\u2019s being written today, from the most wonderfully diverse and musically varied group of people.\u201d Ranging in age from 26 to 83, the composers she chose are also diverse with respect to race, gender, geography, compositional approach, musical style and stage of career (see full list below). In a statement about the project, Weilerstein writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cI intend for this program to be both a celebration of well-known voices and a way of introducing audiences to young composers or composers whose work has heretofore not been adequately appreciated by the wider public.\u201d<\/p>\n

To all 27, she gave the same compositional prompt, asking each to write ten minutes of music in two or three standalone fragments that she could program between other new excerpts or movements by Bach. As she discovered, her prompt elicited a wide variety of musical responses. Where some composers drew inspiration directly from Bach, others explored the possibilities of today\u2019s extended cello techniques. Ranging from the neo-Baroque to the avant-garde, their submissions excited her. \u201cIt\u2019s been so fascinating to see what they\u2019ve done with this,\u201d she says. She then took on the task of integrating the new works with Bach\u2019s music to create the six chapters of \u201cFRAGMENTS.\u201d Each chapter is built around one suite in its entirety, but within them she reordered Bach\u2019s movements with the same freedom as the newer works. About her programming process, she recalls: \u201cI was a bit nervous about putting everything in order, because I thought, \u2018This has got to be exactly right.\u2019 But when the time came, it just flowed out of me. It was very natural.\u201d<\/p>\n

To complete the project, Weilerstein assembled an outstanding creative team under the auspices of artistic producer and advisor Hanako Yamaguchi, the former Director of Music Programming at New York\u2019s Lincoln Center. \u201cFRAGMENTS\u201d is directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, who has explored the intersection of music and theater in productions for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Opera and other leading performing arts organizations. She explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cA nuanced visual design created in close relationship to music can ultimately elevate the form. When objects and music and light are in accord with one another, then some magic can happen that sparks a deeper sensory experience for the audience. When it is part of a live performance by an artist such as Alisa \u2013 who generates her own magnetic magic \u2013 the result can be a connection to pure feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFRAGMENTS\u201d features original costumes by Carlos J. Soto, who has collaborated with artists including Solange, Dav\u00f3ne Tines and Robert Wilson, and sensitive lighting and set design by Seth Reiser, known for his \u201calmost musical sense of lighting\u201d (San Diego Union-Tribune). Reiser says:
\n\u201cI designed the set by drawing a paneled wall, and then placing rectangles all over it and cutting that wall into several rectangular slices. Within each of the set pieces, there\u2019s a system of LED lights that can respond and change color and be more or less present. I think of the walls as architectural instruments. They\u2019re present in the way a piece of sculpture might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe staging serves as a way of guiding the audience,\u201d Weilerstein explains. \u201cIt\u2019s not narrative theater. It\u2019s abstract, yet very, very emotional.\u201d To maintain this intensity, she performs each chapter from start to finish without pausing for breaks between sections. She is also keen that audiences should be free to create meaning and connection from what they hear without the distraction of background information. \u201cI find I listen much more deeply when I\u2019m allowed to just experience what the composer is actually saying, without worrying about who is saying it,\u201d she says. To that end, instead of receiving program booklets with composers\u2019 names and biographies before each performance, audiences will receive them only at the concert\u2019s end. As Weilerstein puts it:<\/p>\n

\u201cSome things will be familiar to people. Some things obviously will not be. Some things will be very moving to them. Some might be puzzling. To me, that\u2019s very exciting! It\u2019s the way I would want to experience a concert or a performance myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the finished production, she confides: \u201cI was almost in tears seeing it in person for the first time. I thought, \u2018Wow. This is not a pipe dream anymore. This is happening.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFRAGMENTS\u201d for solo cello<\/strong>
\nAlisa Weilerstein, project creator & performer
\nElkhanah Pulitzer, director
\nHanako Yamaguchi, artistic producer & advisor
\nSeth Reiser, set & lighting design
\nCarlos J Soto, costume design<\/p>\n

Featured composers:<\/strong>
\nAndy Akiho, J.S. Bach, Courtney Bryan, Chen Yi, Alan Fletcher, Gabriela Lena Frank, Osvaldo Golijov, Joseph Hallman, Gabriel Kahane, Daniel Kidane, Thomas Larcher, Tania Le\u00f3n, Allison Loggins-Hull, Missy Mazzoli, Gerard McBurney, Jessie Montgomery, Reinaldo Moya, Jeffrey Mumford, Matthias Pintscher, Gity Razaz, Gili Schwarzman, Caroline Shaw, Carlos Simon, Gabriela Smith, Ana Sokolovi\u0107, Joan Tower, Mathilde Wantenaar, Paul Wiancko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Combining Bach with 27 New Commissions, Cellist\u2019s Multisensory New Solo Project Launches Next Year \u201cI want people to experience music without borders. My hope is that people will listen with the idea that they\u2019re going to go on a wild adventure,\u201d says Alisa Weilerstein of \u201cFRAGMENTS.\u201d Perhaps her most ambitious and personal project to date, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3688,4208,3633,7024,7179,7177,4369],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10673,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670\/revisions\/10673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/10672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}