Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will perform Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in 15 North American cities in March and April 2011. The tour programs also include Rimsky-Korsakov's RussIan Easter Overture, Brahms's Symphony No. 4, and Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," led by conductors Yuri Temirkanov and Nikolai Alexeev.
Ms. Weilerstein's performances on the tour begin on Tuesday, March 22 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA and continue in Santa Barbara, CA (3/23), Palm Desert, CA (3/24), Davis, CA (3/26), Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, CA (3/27), Orchestra Hall in Chicago, IL (3/30), Urbana, IL (3/31), Goshen, IN (4/1), Chapel Hill, NC (4/5), West Palm Beach, FL (4/7), Sarasota, FL (4/8), Symphony Hall in Boston, MA (4/10), Bethesda, MD (4/12), Carnegie Hall in New York, NY (4/14), and Greenvale, NY (4/16). (See below for program details for each city.) Ms. Weilerstein performed Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä at her BBC Proms debut last year. Of this performance, Edward Seckerson of The Independent wrote, "We must cast our minds back to Rostropovich to remember an account of the slow movement as potent and technically accomplished as this", and Richard Morrison of the Sunday Times wrote, "It's as hard for cellists to shake off the shadow of Rostropovich here as it is for tenors to banish the sound of Peter Pears when singing Britten. Yet the young American not only chose a radically different path through the music - more soft-edged in timbre, less overtly freighted with emotion, and certainly less angry - but traversed this epic work with suppleness and authority."March 8, 2011
About the Artist
American cellist Alisa Weilerstein has attracted widespread attention for playing that combines a natural virtuosic command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship. The intensity of her playing has regularly been lauded, as has the spontaneity and sensitivity of her interpretations.
In addition to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra tour, highlights of Ms. Weilerstein's 2010-11 season have included the world premiere of a new song cycle written by Gabriel Kahane with Kahane in the U.S., recitals with pianist Inon Barnatan, performing with Matthias Pintscher with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and playing Osvaldo Golijov's Azul in Spain and Denmark. In September 2010, EuroArts released a DVD of Ms. Weilerstein's performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Daniel Barenboim in the orchestra's European Concert, a concert that was also televised live worldwide and broadcast on the BBC in the UK.
In November 2009, Ms. Weilerstein was one of four artists selected to participate in a White House classical music event that included student workshops hosted by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, and a concert for guests including President Obama.
In 2008 Alisa Weilerstein was awarded Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal prize for exceptional achievement and she was named the winner of the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award, which she received at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany. She received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2000 and was selected for two prestigious young artists programs in 2000-01; the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) "Rising Stars" recital series and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two.
Alisa Weilerstein, who was born in 1982, made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in October 1995, at age 13, playing the Tchaikovsky "Rococo" Variations. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in March 1997. Ms. Weilerstein is a graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Richard Weiss. In May 2004, she graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in Russian History. Ms. Weilerstein, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was nine, is a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. For more information on Ms. Weilerstein, please visit www.alisaweilerstein.com
St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra & Alisa Weilerstein U.S. Tour 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 8:00 PM Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA
Conducted by Yuri Temirkanov Tickets: www.laphil.com
Phone: (323) 850-2000
(March 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, April 1, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV RussIan Easter Overture, Op. 36
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