Alisa Weilerstein

The American-born cellist Alisa Weilerstein has attracted attention worldwide for her natural virtuosity, intensity of her playing and the spontaneity and sensitivity of her interpretations. She has also appeared at major music festivals throughout the world as a soloist, recitalist and as a chamber musician.

Following the October release of their duo album debut on Decca, comprising sonatas by Chopin and Rachmaninoff, Alisa reunites with her longtime recital partner, pianist Inon Barnatan, for a tour of North America and on a tour of six European capitals that takes in London’s Wigmore Hall.

An ardent champion of new music, she has worked extensively with Osvaldo Golijov and premiered works by Lera Auerbach and Joseph Hallman. Last season she gave the New York premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Reflections on Narcissus under the composer’s direction during the New York Philharmonic’s inaugural Biennial. She appears at major music festivals worldwide, and regularly collaborates with Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the “El Sistema education programme”.

Weilerstein, whose honours include Lincoln Center’s 2008 Martin E. Segal prize and the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award, is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Columbia University. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged 9, she is now a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.