Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment, and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2011. Today her career is truly global in scope, taking her to the most prestigious international venues for solo recitals, chamber concerts, and concerto collaborations.
With her multi-season solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS,” Weilerstein aims to reimagine the concert experience. Comprising six programs, each an hour long, the series sees her weave together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 new commissions in a multisensory production by Elkhanah Pulitzer. In the 2024-25 season, she premieres FRAGMENTS 3 at San Diego’s Jacobs Music Center, gives the New York premieres of FRAGMENTS 2 and 3 at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and performs the complete cycle at Charleston’s Spoleto Festival USA.
Weilerstein regularly appears alongside preeminent conductors with the world’s major orchestras. Versatile across the cello repertoire’s full breadth, she is a leading exponent of its greatest classics and an ardent proponent of contemporary music, who has premiered important new concertos by Pascal Dusapin, Matthias Pintscher, and Joan Tower. In 2024-25, she brings to life three more concertos, premiering Thomas Larcher’s with the New York Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony, Richard Blackford’s with the Czech Philharmonic, and Gabriela Ortiz’s with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at L.A.’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Bogotá’s Teatro Mayor, and Carnegie Hall. Her other 2024-25 highlights include season-opening concerts with the San Diego and Kansas City Symphonies; returns to the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras; and duo recitals with Inon Barnatan at Stanford University and in Boston’s Celebrity Series.
As an authority on Bach’s music for unaccompanied cello, in spring 2020 Weilerstein released a best-selling recording of his solo suites for Pentatone, streamed them in her innovative #36DaysOfBach project, and deconstructed his beloved G-major prelude in a Vox.com video, now viewed more than 2.2 million times. Her discography also includes chart-topping albums and the winner of BBC Music’s “Recording of the Year” award.
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at nine years old, Weilerstein is a staunch advocate for the T1D community. She lives with her husband, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, and their two young children.
