Acclaimed 17-year-old cellist Alisa Weilerstein to perform
Acclaimed 17-year-old cellist Alisa Weilerstein will perform a concert of works by Schubert, Barber and Tchaikovsky at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 22, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for students and seniors, and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6252.
The young American cellist has won unanimous praise for playing that combines natural virtuosity with impassioned musicianship. The New York Times called her “an enormously talented musician” whose performance of a Dvorak cello concerto featured “boldness, assured technique and vibrant tone.”
Born in 1982, she began playing the cello at age four and a half. She performed her first public concert six months later. A student of Richard Weiss, she is a member of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Weilerstein made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in October 1995 at age 13, playing the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations. She first appeared at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony in March 1997 and also has given concerts with the Albany Symphony, the California Symphony, the Puerto Rico Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic.
During the 1997-98 season, Weilerstein returned to the Rochester Philharmonic and made debuts with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under Lawrence Foster’s direction and the Long Island Philharmonic. During the last two summers, she participated in the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and also made her recording debut in London with a recital album for EMI Classics.
Weilerstein also has performed at the Cleveland Museum of Art, as part of the young artists recital series of the La Jolla Chamber Music Society in San Diego and the Ravinia Festival. During her first tour to Japan in 1999, she gave a Suntory Hall recital in Tokyo in 1999.
Weilerstein plays regularly throughout the country with her parents, Donald and Vivian, as the Weilerstein Trio. She first performed with them at age 6 at the Round Top Festival in Texas. Since then, the trio has performed in Akron, Cleveland, Chicago and Toronto, as well as the Eastman School of Music and the Aspen Music Festival. They recorded their debut CD, The Ives Piano Trio, in 1998.
Alisa Weilerstein has played for many musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, David Finckel, Paul Katz, Lynn Harrell and Dorothy DeLay. She was profiled in 1998 by CBS This Morning as part of its nationally televised series on the “Class of 2000.”
The next concert in the Bates College Concert Series will be Shanghai String Quartet and Eliot Fisk, guitar, who will perform at 8 p.m., Monday, Feb. 7, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. Tickets for this concert are also $10 for general admission and $8 for students and seniors and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6252.
