Brava, brava, brava! Its very hard to write anything for solo cello and not have some subconscious relationship to Bach.. She lives with her husband, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, and their young child. This is what its about for me., A Cellist Breaks Music Into Fragments, Then Connects Them, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/arts/music/alisa-weilerstein-fragments-cellist.html. Weilerstein and Jason Yoder ( marimba) perform Camille Saint-Sans 's "Le cygne" (The Swan) from The Carnival of the Animals at the White House Evening of Classical Music (November 2009) Problems playing these files? See media help. Alisa Weilerstein (born April 14, 1982) is an American classical cellist. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow. [1] As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Alex Irvin / Courtesy Aspen Music Festival and School. 1600 Saint-Urbain Street, Labels are generally very, very unhelpful. The other goal that I have is to try to help create a twenty-first century repertoire for the cello, much in the way that Rostropovich did in the twentieth century. hide caption. AW: No, she actually offered quite a lot of technical advice because - contrary to popular belief - the violin and the cello are really not that different, it's actually the same but just reversed. So to return to it was actually really wonderful, because I found all sorts of new things in it. This means people can now refer to you as a genius in an official capacity. Weilerstein was born in Rochester, New York, on April 14, 1982. hide caption. Theres a lot of things that classical music does uniquely well, and its important to preserve those things, Weilerstein said. courtesy of the artist Cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Box-Office Hours There was a temptation to write something really virtuosic, really out there, really avant-garde, said Reinaldo Moya, one of the more junior composers in Weilersteins group, because youre not going to have the chance to work with a soloist of that caliber every time. hide caption. We also use third party cookies which help us analyze and understand how you use this website. In this interview from the Harris Hall stage in Aspen, Performance Today's Fred Child talks with renowned cellist Alisa Weilerstein about the Aspen experience, and what the school and festival means to her. Dont do it for anybody else. To keep growing with them. Weilerstein at the Fragments premiere in Toronto. Conversation Alisa Weilerstein on what it means to be a classical musician Music , Beginnings, Collaboration, Process From a conversation with T. Cole Rachel April 19, Weilerstein was born in Rochester, New York, but was raised in Cleveland, graduating from Cleveland Heights High School. theres no substitute for time away. This site uses cookies to offer you the best possible experience. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. It didnt last. As Artistic Partner of the Trondheim Soloists, she regularly tours and records with the Norwegian orchestra. In fact, I played for Zara Nelsova when I was much younger, but I wasn't officially a student, I was around maybe 6 or 7 when I had my first lessons with her. You can also deactivate these cookies. If Weilersteins response was a common one to a common crisis, the result of her reflections shines with uncommon ambition, so much so that it is hard to think of many soloists of a similar stature who would dare to bring anything like it to the stage. Her Sarabandes are extraordinary, very slow (a lot of the high time total is racked up here) without being emotionally overwrought: they are deeply meditative. She doesnt give the impression that making music involves will at all. Do it for no other reason than that you love it and cant imagine doing anything else. How did you feel about that at the time? Most classical musicians regard his work as sacred in terms of really abiding by exactly what he wrote, in terms of dynamic markings and tempi and that sort of thing. There Will Be Blood. Something I return to every so often is Kunderas The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. She was awarded the MacArthur genius grant in 2011. Here's a space to search our entire website. We were just working together, and I wanted to be a better musician and a better cellist. For me, it didnt matter whether I was playing in front of people or not. Everyone brings their perspective and insight into what the composer actually meant. The goal is always to know these scores better, to truly, The Creative Independent is ad-free and published by, Master Class (esk filharmonie / Czech Philharmonic), Rachmaninovs Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor. Alisa Weilersteins new project, Fragments, comes to Zankel Hall on April 1. Born in New York to a violinist father and pianist mother, she grew up and eventually formed the Weilerstein Trio with her parents. I thought the connotations of being considered a prodigy implied living a very different life than the one I lived. She plays the suites in the sequence 1, 3, 6, 2, 4, 5, making the virtuosic and difficult Suite No. Its a balance we have to strive forto protect what the composer intended, yet keep the music alive so it doesnt become a museum piece, or simply an archive. Lifestyle. Monday to Friday: noon to 5 p.m. Allegro maestoso ma appassionato 9:33 2. At least I dont.. The Prelude of the Cello Suite No. People might assume that a talent like yours must have been fostered at the expense of everything else. My management was very careful to get me as much experience as I needed without overexposing me or taking over my life. Im still going to always try to improve as an artist and to be a more insightful interpreter. I know many people who say, I got inspired by such-and-such conductor when my school took me on a field trip to hear a concert, or such-and-such musician came to my school, and then I knew I loved classical music. The goal is not necessarily that theyll all become musicians, but just that this music will be part of their lives. From there to the regal quality of the third and the life affirming and nostalgic quality of the sixth. The second disc delves into the darker Suites. May 27, 2011 A consummate artist even before she was out of her teens, 29-year-old Alisa Weilerstein has already been granted extraordinary opportunities, from Its nice, and of course, its a great honor. Do you even remember the first time you were here? You also have to deal with the traveling, which is very tough on the body. I think its a fantastic resource, and he writes so beautifully. Her passionate performance of Chopin's Cello Sonata at WGBH is the sign of a young musician well on her way to a major career. Climate & Environment. Its a constant challenge, too. Going to hear a concert and not looking at whats on the program and not knowing what comes next those have been some of my deepest and most revealing listening experiences, Shaw said. He was Dad (laughs). Some did, she said, and some very much did not.. Its tricky, especially if its a composer like Beethoven, who was specific about what he wanted. Visita nuestra pgina web en espaol. But for this upcoming performance, itll be my first time that I play it without a conductor, so it should be interesting. Music is about communication. 2023 Orchestre symphonique de Montral. December 22, 2012 The albums that sum up our year span genres and borders. These cookies do not store any personal information. This is the philosophy behind the project, fundamentally: connecting the pieces, connecting the voices of our time together, connecting the familiar and the new, connecting this music with the audience without the barrier of so much contextualization, categorization, bias, all of these things., And connecting, she added, our contemporary world with the concert format. But if both of us are open to different orientations or interpretations, that can yield a really interesting interpretation and performance. Carlos Kleibers live recording of Brahms 2nd Symphony reminds me of what utter joy and inspiration sounds (and looks!) She will perform a Bach suite in its entirety, and she will play it with her typical, heartfelt passion. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. She will offer new music: quite a lot of it, selected from works by 27 composers she has commissioned. For example, the Schumann concerto Ive played many times. Alisa Weilerstein (cello) Recorded: 2012-10-14 Recording Venue: Teldex Studio, Berlin 1. There is no end point. Law Office of Gretchen J. Kenney. For reasons she cant explain, she was instantly attracted to the instrument as a small child. I live with his music all the time, I love it deeply, Shaw said, adding that the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier has been her soundtrack for the past year. WebAbout Alisa Weilerstein. Webby James Manheim. When she finally forced herself to play again, she found herself staring out of the window, wondering what her field might look like when, or if, performers returned to the stage. We all had a lot of time to think about what it means to really connect with an audience, what it means to connect with each other, and an appreciation for being in one communal space.. AW: No, because I was three months old. An ardent proponent of contemporary music, she has also premiered and championed important new works by composers including Pascal Dusapin, Osvaldo Golijov and Matthias Pintscher. Meet Fragments, a project whose first installment of six Weilerstein will perform at Zankel Hall on April 1. For anyone in the classical music world, being able to expose other people to these great works is always something you hope to do. Well, something that Im trying to do more of is simply being mindful to get enough exercise and to do good stretches. Earlier in their careers, Moya and Payare both played in the Simn Bolvar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, a country that has such an addiction to caffeine that it has a precise linguistic taxonomy for coffee and its functions. You try to treat the score as something thats living and breathing, and therefore, malleable. February 16, 2012 Positioned above a tank full of stingrays at the National Aquarium, Weilerstein used her cello to serenade sea creatures (and many pleasantly surprised visitors) with music by Johann Sebastian Bach. (1988) and When Alisa Met Elliott (2012). Hes a great inspiration for me in that sense. Its like the E.M. Forster phrase, only connect, Weilerstein explained. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. But I wanted to go with my gut, and relate my work to something that might connect with her on that level, not a technical or a composer-y level.. Cecilia BartoliI love virtually everything she does. As a soloist she has performed with a number of other major orchestras on four continents. At this point in your career, how do you define success? She started playing the cello at age four. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein has appeared with leading orchestras all over the U.S. and Europe and has played chamber music with her parents, both well-known performers, in the Weilerstein Trio. Yes, that is weird. AllMusic relies heavily on JavaScript. Those were the kind of stories you heard. Learn all about Alisa Weilerstein on AllMusic. For that reason, the lack of program notes before the lights go dark, the audience will be given only the most basic information about the project, and the names of the composers they will hear is a core part of Fragments, and a sign, its creators said, that, for all the deliberate, thoughtful artifice, the focus is on the music. I tend to say yes too often, but Im trying to get better at that. This is, therefore, a Romantic and very exciting set of cello suites. If theres a piece that Ive been playing over and over again, its very helpful to put it away for a while. Since Alisa Weilerstein was just 6, the three have performed together around the globe as the Weilerstein Trio. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Her father, Donald, was the longtime first violinist with the fine Cleveland Quartet, and her mother, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, is an equally well-regarded pianist. Saturday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. So Fragments is not, thankfully, another addition to the increasingly pass genre of response programming, in which composers are commissioned to write works on the dispiriting condition that they must speak to a piece by the masters of the past. Nobody would say otherwise, but I try not to pay too much attention to that. When the cellist Alisa Weilerstein found herself cooped up with her family at the start of the pandemic, her first instinct, like that of so many classical musicians, was to find some way-any way-to communicate. Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Is it to be an interpreter? If there's such a thing as cello mojo, Alisa Weilerstein has it. WebAlisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. I never liked that word. I was never subjected to abuse or was made to practice 10 hours a day while locked up. She has been married to Rafael Payare since 2013. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur genius grant Fellowship in 2011. She was awarded the MacArthur genius grant in 2011. There may be people, Weilerstein admits, who are put off by even a modest staging, or by her tinkering with performance traditions. One book I would recommend to anyone whos interested in music would be Alex Rosss The Rest Is Noise. Weilerstein has achieved an impressive set, one that stands apart from the hundreds of others available, yet gives the listener the feeling that she might have done it differently the next day. FC: Was it hard playing at home for your dad - this world-famous violinist - when you were just learning how to play the cello? This is always the subject of debatewhat is the role of the performer? It certainly made things easier to not have that fear, to not have to unload that fear or deal with it. 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. [5] Weilerstein has received a number of honors. But again, you crave that kind of thing. WebMini Bio (1) Alisa Weilerstein is known for If I Stay (2014), P.O.V. Its about communicating ideas which are inexpressible in words. An authority on Bachs music for unaccompanied cello, Weilerstein recently released a best-selling recording of his solo suites on the Pentatone label, streamed them in her innovative #36DaysOfBach project, and deconstructed his beloved G-major prelude in a Vox.com video, viewed almost 1.5 million times. There are only a few weeks of the year when Im not on the road. .st0{ You try to treat the score as something thats living and breathing, and therefore, malleable. The staging does offer some hints about the music, as if to hold the listeners hand. I am traveling almost all the time. After premiering the first two chapters in Toronto in early 2023, with subsequent performances at New Yorks Carnegie Hall and beyond, she looks forward to touring all six chapters in seasons to come. Ive been looking forward to working with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra because they dont play like a typical orchestra with a conductor at the head, in which case you just follow the conductors beat. She lives with her husband, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, and their two young children. I got management early on. She and the cello seem simply to be one and the same, agrees the Los Angeles Times. There is no end point. Concert matines: opens at 9 a.m. With her multi-season new project, FRAGMENTS, Weilerstein aims to rethink the concert experience and broaden the tent for classical music. Im going to give you a similar answer to what I would say about the label of prodigy. Of course, these labels are flattering. Already an authority on Bachs music for unaccompanied cello, in spring 2020 Weilerstein released a best-selling recording of his solo suites on the Pentatone label, streamed them in her innovative #36DaysOfBach project, and deconstructed his beloved G-major prelude in a Vox.com video, viewed more than two million times. Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Thats a great advantage of playing these real masterworks, because theyre so rich in detail that you can always find something new, no matter how many times youve played them. September 23, 2011 A "genius" cellist, more protesting letters from London, Iraqi musicians go to Germany, and dreams of "comfort sounds" series: All the news that's fit to link. Veterans Pension Benefits (Aid & Attendance). For Shaw, that was part of the attraction of Fragments, beyond the obvious appeal of writing for a soloist whose visible commitment expresses such a clear love of music. But Weilerstein thinks of it not as a new approach to Bach, she said, rather a celebration of the really disparate voices in contemporary classical music, with Bach as a common reference point. Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. However, even with a very specific composer like that, there is tremendous room for interpretation. In Alisa Weilersteins groundbreaking, multi-year performance series FRAGMENTS, new music by some of the most compelling composers of our time meets From Astro to Wadada Leo Smith, Fiona Apple to Frank Ocean, here are 50 albums that made 2012 great. hide caption. I want to keep fostering relationships with composers, help expand our repertoire, and create a cornerstones of twenty-first century repertoire. Im constantly trying to budget my time properly so that I have enough time and head space to really work on the things that I need to do in a practical sense, but also grow as an artist. Its a balance we have to strive forto protect what the composer intended, yet keep the music alive so it doesnt become a museum piece, or simply an archive. FC: You spent a lot of time at Aspen as a very young girl. I do think, though, that we clearly have a problem, that we are not connecting with enough people, and that we are relying too much on our old models of presenting, especially when it comes to new music.. I have actually recorded the Elgar with Daniel Barenboim. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Weilerstein was born in Rochester, New York. to a secular Jewish family. 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. For her though, Fragments is an attempt to make the concert hall more of a place of adventure again, and less of a dead end. I was 14 when I went with my manager. Weilerstein recently premiered Joan Towers new cello concerto, A New Day, at the Colorado Music Festival. March 24, 2023 When the cellist Alisa Weilerstein found herself cooped up with her family at the start of the pandemic, her first instinct, like that of so many classical Alisa Weilerstein (1982-) Alisa Weilerstein. Food. Gerardo Antonio Sanchez Torres/courtesy of the artist, Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar: Exploring Music With An Intense Past, Young Cellist With An Old Soul Plays Elgar, Elliott Carter, Alisa Weilerstein: Playing Bach With The Fishes, Around The Classical Internet: September 23, 2011, Cellist Alisa Weilerstein Among MacArthur Grant Winners, Alisa Weilerstein: From Bach To The Backstreets Of Buenos Aires, Band Of Gypsies: Haydn And Brahms At Spoleto Festival, Alisa Weilerstein: The Art Of Chopin's Cello. Daniel Day-Lewis tour de force. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein. When the cellist Alisa Weilerstein found herself cooped up with her family at the start of the pandemic, her first instinct, like that of so many classical musicians, was to find some way any way to communicate. Hablas espaol? Phone: 650-931-2505 | Fax: 650-931-2506 Since making her professional and Carnegie Hall debuts in her early teens, she has been in high demand as a solo He was the muse for Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and he premiered over a thousand works over the course of his lifetime. It felt a little bit all right, it felt a lot risky to give her a piece about coffee like that, Moya said. Weilerstein avoids the dance rhythms for the most part, but sometimes, when they serve her purposes, they show up, and the surfaces are strikingly variegated. Alisa Weilerstein is streaming one movement of the Bach cello suites a day, just as she has released a polished studio recording of them. Since making her professional and Carnegie Hall debuts in her early teens, she has been in high demand as a solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist with leading orchestras worldwide. 2023 Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. Caroline Shaw, whose Microfictions for Weilerstein is the second volume in a run of collected miniatures that she has also written for the Mir Quartet and the New York Philharmonic, said that her piece is not an explicit response to Bach, but that his influence was surely present in it. Weilerstein wanted for the first thing that listeners hear to be the Prelude from the first Suite. Try typing something like "creative blocks", "spiral", "world", "green" or "blue" and our snail will find what you're looking for. Dont do it for anybody else. Is it always about reaching for some higher goal? hide caption. She is married to Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, with whom she has a young child. Its familiar, theres such a child-like purity to it, says Weilerstein. I count myself incredibly lucky in that respector maybe I was just very stupid, I dont knowthat I wasnt afraid to be in front of people. Jamie Jung Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Her I realized that what he was telling me was very valuable. Alisa Weilerstein performs at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Just making sure to get enough sleep, and to have enough space in between engagements, those are things Im not too good at. Alisa Weilerstein (Cello) Born: April 18, 1982 - Rochester, New York, USA The American cellist, Alisa Weilerstein, was born into a musical family: she is the In that sense, theres no substitute for time away. I havent played the Elgar in a long time. This website uses cookies to improve your experience when you browse the website. Reisers set stays constant, a deconstructed theater arrayed so that it evokes soloists constant struggles to create a room of ones own as they travel the worlds halls, Pulitzer said, and at the same time reawakens the spaces for the people who are familiar with them. Each composer has a specific lighting color, to give a sense of which fragments combine to make wholes. Housing & Homelessness. Mito Habe-Evans/NPR I do that with great repertoires a lot. She left the choice up to them. So thats how I always looked at it. December 4, 2012 The celebrated young American cellist walks us through her recording of this "devastating" concerto written just after the end of World War I. Alisa Weilerstein always knew that she wanted to be a cellist. Alisa Weilerstein is a young cellist whose emotionally resonant performances of both traditional and contemporary music have earned her international recognition. As the UKs Telegraph put it, Weilerstein is truly a phenomenon.. } You made your professional debut at the age of 13 and were often referred to as a child prodigy. Alisa Weilersteins latest project is a series of staged solo recitals that weave Bachs cello suites with newly commissioned works. I had a real life. If you have played these pieces many times, as I have, this is the sort of thing you crave. 6 in D major, BWV 1012, into a sub-climax that concludes CD 1. My parents were very conscious to give me as close to a normal childhood as possible, so I had friends, played outside, went to normal school. I came to Aspen, I think, for 16 summers of my first 18 years of life, so I spent a lot of my formative years here, so it really feels like another home to me. In general, Weilerstein's approach is deliberate and detailed, more reminiscent of Mstislav Rostropovich than of the members of her own family with whom she plays chamber music.