Alisa Weilerstein

Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment, and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship in 2011. Her career is global in scope, taking her to the most prestigious international venues for solo recitals, chamber concerts, and concertos. Dedicated to expanding the cello literature, she is celebrated both for her interpretations of the core repertoire and for bringing new works to life through a wealth of solo and concerto commissions.

With her multiseason solo project "FRAGMENTS," Weilerstein has reimagined the concert experience, weaving together the 36 movements of Bach's solo cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works in an immersive production directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer. Since premiering the series in early 2023, she has performed "FRAGMENTS" throughout North America and Europe, giving its European, Czech, German, and UK premieres in 2025-26, when she also held a fall and winter residency at London's Southbank Centre.

A champion of contemporary music, Weilerstein has premiered concertos written for her by six leading composers, among them Gabriela Ortiz, Thomas Larcher, and Richard Blackford, whose concertos she introduced in 2024-25. In 2025-26 she gave the UK premiere of Ortiz's Dzonot with Marin Alsop and the Philharmonia Orchestra and performed Joan Tower's concerto with the commissioning Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Her recent concerto engagements have spanned the major orchestras of North America and Europe, in works by Elgar, Dvořák, Shostakovich, Unsuk Chin, Lutosławski, and Britten.

Recognized as one of the leading exponents of Bach's six suites for unaccompanied cello, Weilerstein recorded the complete suites for Pentatone, a Billboard best-seller that was nominated for a 2021 Gramophone Award. Her other Pentatone releases include the complete Beethoven cello sonatas with pianist Inon Barnatan, Beethoven's Triple Concerto, and both Haydn cello concertos. Earlier recordings include the Elgar and Elliott Carter concertos with Daniel Barenboim, named recording of the year 2013 by BBC Music, and Dvořák's concerto with the Czech Philharmonic, which topped the U.S. classical chart.

Weilerstein has appeared with all the major orchestras of the United States, Europe, and Asia, collaborating with the leading conductors of our time. Born in 1982, she took up the cello at age 4 and made her professional debut at age 13, playing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Cleveland Orchestra. A graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Richard Weiss, she also holds a degree in history from Columbia University. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) at age 9, she is a staunch advocate for the T1D community as a Celebrity Ambassador for Breakthrough T1D. The daughter of violinist Donald Weilerstein and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and sister of conductor Joshua Weilerstein, she is married to conductor Rafael Payare, with whom she has two young children.