This American cellist has acquired international renown through the style of her playing in which she combines natural virtuosity and technical perfection with passionate musicality and spontaneous interpretation. Listeners can enjoy all this all the more in her solo recital, where the music is stripped down to the very essence of its appeal. Indeed, Weilerstein has a perfect feel for the works which she performs, and it is not merely by chance that she has been compared to the legendary Jacqueline du Pré or to the famous Yo-Yo Ma.
Alisa Weilerstein is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Young Artist Program and made her professional debut with an orchestra when she was only 13. Two years later, she had her debut in New York’s Carnegie Hall. She has performed with all the major orchestras in the United States and Europe under such famous conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Marin Alsop, Sir Andrew Davis, and Gustavo Dudamel. In 2010 she signed an exclusive recording contract with the prestigious Decca Classics company, the first cellist to whom they have offered such a contract in 30 years. On her first album for this label, which came out in November of 2012, she performed the famous cello concerti by Elliott Carter and Edward Elgar with the Staatskapelle Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim. She performs on a cello built in William Forster’s workshop in 1790.
She enchanted us with her solo recital in the St Anne’s Church during last year’s Strings of Autumn Festival. In an interview on that occasion she let it be known that she enjoys solo concerts such as these enormously `…because the solo repertoire makes for extremely close contact and a real connection with the space and the listeners. It is a kind of meditation and in the usual course of concert events a unique occasion´. Alisa Weilerstein always prepares the programme of her concerts very carefully and always finds an interesting way to combine the classical repertoire with some contemporary works.
