21C Media Group Welcomes MacArthur Fellow Alisa Weilerstein, Whose Elgar/Carter Cello Concertos CD Is BBC Music’s “Recording of the Year”

“Alisa Weilerstein…is too big a talent to be pigeonholed.”– New York magazine

21C Media Group is thrilled to announce that it now represents Alisa Weilerstein for media relations and digital marketing. The recipient of a 2011 MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship, the American cellist has long proven herself to be in possession of a distinctive musical voice; the MacArthur Foundation proclaims her “a consummate performer, combining technical precision with impassioned musicianship,” while the Los Angeles Times observes simply, “Weilerstein’s cello is her id. She doesn’t give the impression that making music involves will at all. She and the cello seem simply to be one and the same.” For her debut release as an exclusive Decca Classics artist, Weilerstein – the first cellist to be signed by the prestigious label in more than 30 years – recorded the Elgar and Elliott Carter cello concertos with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin. The disc has just been named “Recording of the Year” by BBC Music magazine, which features the cellist on the cover of its May 2014 issue.  This announcement comes as Weilerstein’s second Decca recording, of Dvorák’s Cello Concerto with Jirí Belohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic, continues to gain praise in the U.S. and abroad following its release in early 2014.

Cultural commentator Norman Lebrecht also selected Elgar/Carter Cello Concertos as his “Album of the Year.” As he explains,

“When all’s said and spun, my album of the year is the one from January – Alisa Weilerstein playing the Elgar cello concerto as if no one had played it before, steering us away from postwar terror and pity into a dawn of golden beauty, and pairing this striking reinvention with modernist nocturnal rustlings in Elliott Carter’s quiet valediction. … It’s an album worthy of the best of years.” (Sinfini Music)

In her orchestral collaborations over the coming months, Weilerstein continues to demonstrate her commitment equally to repertory staples and to new music. Having recently “met Dudamel, rapture for rapture” (Los Angeles Times) in Tchaikovsky at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and revealed “intensity, tonal beauty, and emotional depth” (New York Times) in Penderecki at the New York Philharmonic, she now looks forward to giving the New York premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Reflections on Narcissus under the composer’s own direction during the New York Philharmonic’s inaugural Biennial (June 6). After performing Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo” Variations on an Israeli tour with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and the Israel Philharmonic (April 28–May 11), she returns to the Chicago Symphony for Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante (May 29 & 30) and to the Dallas Symphony for Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (May 15–18), both under the leadership of Jaap van Zweden.

For her second Decca album, released earlier this year, Weilerstein undertook Dvorák’s Cello Concerto with Jirí Belohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic, in a performance distinguished, as the New York Times noted, by a “take-no-prisoners emotional investment that is evident in every bar.” This summer she gives solo recitals at Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Caramoor International Music Festival, where she serves as 2014 artist-in-residence. Summer also sees the release of the feature film If I Stay, in which the cellist makes a cameo appearance as herself alongside award-winning actress Chloë Grace Moretz.

Weilerstein’s previous career milestones include an account of the Elgar concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Barenboim that impressed the New York Times as “incandescent” and The Guardian as “emotionally devastating”; the concert was televised live to an audience of millions worldwide, and subsequently issued on DVD by EuroArts. The cellist was also one of four artists invited by Michelle Obama to participate in a widely celebrated and high-profile classical music event at the White House, where she gave student workshops and performed before guests who included President Obama and the First Family.

An ardent champion of new music, Weilerstein has worked extensively with Osvaldo Golijov and has premiered works by Lera Auerbach and 2014 Grammy Award nominee Joseph Hallman. She regularly plays and teaches with Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and its famed El Sistema music education program.

A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Columbia University, her honors include Lincoln Center’s 2008 Martin E. Segal prize and the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award. In November 2008, Weilerstein, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was nine, became a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Details of Alisa Weilerstein’s upcoming engagements are provided below, and more information is available at the artist’s web site: alisaweilerstein.com

Alisa Weilerstein: upcoming engagements

April 10

Salzburg, Austria

Mozarteum

Mozarteumorchester Salzburg / Ivor Bolton

Schumann: Cello Concerto

April 13

Essen, Germany

Philharmonie

Mozarteumorchester Salzburg / Ivor Bolton

Schumann: Cello Concerto

April 22

Aix-en-Provence, France

Jeu de Paume

Concert with Elena Bashkirova, piano; Michael Barenboim, violin

Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata

Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1

April 28; May 1, 2 & 8

Tel Aviv, Israel

Culture Palace

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra / Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

Tchaikovsky: “Rococo” Variations

April 29

Jerusalem, Israel

International Convention Center

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra / Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1

April 30; May 3 (7:30pm) & 10

Tel Aviv, Israel

Culture Palace

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra / Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1

May 3 (4pm)

Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv Museum

Members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Schubert: String Quintet

Brahms: String Sextet No. 2

May 7 & 11

Haifa, Israel

Rappaport Art and Culture Center

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra / Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1

May 15-18

Dallas, TX

Meyerson Symphony Center

Dallas Symphony Orchestra / Jaap van Zweden

Beethoven: Triple Concerto (with Martin Helmchen, piano; Alexander Kerr, violin)

May 17

Dallas, TX

Dallas City Performance Hall

Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 7 (with Martin Helmchen, piano; Alexander Kerr, violin)

May 29 & 30

Chicago, IL

Symphony Center

Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Jaap van Zweden

Prokofiev: Sinfonia concertante

June 6

New York, NY

Avery Fisher Hall

New York Philharmonic / Matthias Pintscher

Pintscher: Reflections on Narcissus (New York premiere)