MacArthur Award-winning cellist Alisa Weilerstein’s groundbreaking six-part multisensory solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS” – the focus of a cover feature in the October 2025 issue of The Strad – continues with a season of notable milestones in 2026–27. After recent back-to-back performances of FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder and FRAGMENTS 2 – Tumult in both Taipei and Shanghai – marking the first Asian performances of the series – she completes a cycle of premieres that have spanned several seasons in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with FRAGMENTS 6 – Radiance (Nov 5).

For the first Asian performances of FRAGMENTS earlier this month, she presented the sequence of FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder and FRAGMENTS 2 – Tumult in single-day, two-segment programs in Taipei and Shanghai. The first program intersperses the movements of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 with compositions by Allison Loggins-Hull, Gili Schwarzman, Joan Tower, Reinaldo Moya, and Chen Yi. FRAMENTS 2 – Tumult features the movements from Cello Suite No. 2 melded with music of Alan Fletcher, Ana Sokolovic, Caroline Shaw, Daniel Kidane, and Gity Razaz.

Parts 6 of the FRAGMENTS series – subtitled “Radiance” – shows the resolution of the overall dramatic arc. FRAGMENTS 6 – Radiance – featuring works by Andy Akiho, Gabriela Lena Frank, Gabriella Smith, Jessie Montgomery, and Tania León alongside Bach’s Sixth Cello Suite – will have its premiere in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall this season, completing the cycle Weilerstein began in the venue in 2023 (Nov 5).

Upcoming high-profile concerto engagements for Weilerstein include Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Pittsburgh Symphony (Oct 16 & 18); the European premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Cello Concerto, “Journey to Freedom” with the Netherlands Philharmonic and conductor Hannu Lintu (Oct 31 & Nov 2); and the Austrian premiere of Thomas Larcher’s cello concerto, returning into darkness – composed for Weilerstein – with the co-commissioning Tonkünstler Orchestra (Nov 28–30).

Click here to see Alisa’s full schedule.