Alisa Weilerstein signs with PENTATONE; named Artistic Partner of Trondheim Soloists


Alisa Weilerstein announces two major new partnerships to ring in the new year – she has signed an exclusive, multi-album contract with PENTATONE, the Dutch label specializing in high-end, five-channel surround sound, and looks forward to making to her first recording for the label this spring. Due for release later this year, the new album pairs masterworks of the First and Second Viennese Schools – two Haydn concertos with Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht – and marks the first collaboration of her new multi-season role as Artistic Partner of Norway’s celebrated Trondheim Soloists.


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Alisa Weilerstein with Renaud Loranger and Simon M. Eder of PENTATONE

“PENTATONE’s values are in line with mine. Our conversations about repertoire have demonstrated the depth of their knowledge and, perhaps even more importantly, their eagerness in encouraging me to expand my musical horizons. Our first recording together is a testament to that ethos – that artistic integrity and curiosity should always be the first priority. I feel completely at home.” – Alisa Weilerstein on signing with PENTATONE


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Alisa Weilerstein rehearsing with the Trondheim Soloists, September 2017

About her new artistic role, Alisa says: “I couldn’t be happier to begin my artistic partnership with the Trondheim Soloists. The chamber orchestra repertoire has always been very special to me and I could not ask for more engaged or generous musicians to collaborate with. Our fantastic chemistry was evident from the very first notes we played together, and I am very eager to continue developing it over the years ahead.”


After launching their partnership with the PENTATONE recording, Weilerstein and the ensemble look forward to touring Scandinavia together this summer, with subsequent tours of Europe and the U.S. planned for seasons to come. Before she embarks on tour with the Trondheim Soloists this summer, 2018 sees her play concertos by composers ranging from Schumann to Lutosławski with no fewer than eleven more of the world’s top orchestras – America’s New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra, and Europe’s Hallé Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Czech Philharmonic among them.

The cellist has already won accolades for her way with Haydn’s concertos in live performance. On an extensive U.S. tour with London’s Academy of St. Martin’s in the Fields, her account of the Classical master’s C-major concerto “lifted everyone on the stage to an even higher level of excellence. … She brought to the Balboa stage an electricity, a holy zeal to make every musical idea on the page palpable to even the least engaged member of the audience.” Likewise, it was under Weilerstein’s leadership that Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht was hailed as an “absolutely gorgeous half-hour: a mesmerizing traversal” (Seen and Heard International) at the 2015 Aspen Music Festival.