Cellist Alisa Weilerstein excited about return to her roots at Severance Music Center

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who performed within the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra earlier than turning into a global star, will return to Cleveland for 2 very completely different concert events over the following eight days at Severance Music Heart.

On Thursday, Could 4, and Saturday, Could 6, Weilerstein will be a part of the Cleveland Orchestra and its music director, Franz Welser-Möst, to carry out Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto.

Written whereas Barber was serving within the U.S. army throughout World Warfare II, the concerto will likely be bookended by the world premiere of Allison Loggins-Hull’s “Can You See?” and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 4 on each of these dates.

Then on Could 11, Weilerstein will carry out as a soloist – with out the orchestra – in “Fragments 1,” the primary installment of six in her “Fragments” venture. It’s kicking off the orchestra’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera and Humanities Competition Could 11-20.

The groundbreaking, multi-year venture for solo cello weaves collectively actions of Bach’s six cello suites with newly commissioned works by 27 modern composers, together with Loggins-Hull, who’s serving as a Younger Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra.

Weilerstein, 41, has appeared with all main orchestras of america, Europe and Asia, collaborating with many famend conductors, in response to her web site.

She was a toddler prodigy who began enjoying the cello at age 4. In 1995, at age 13, she made her skilled live performance debut, enjoying Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme” with the Cleveland Orchestra.

She has since carried out with the Cleveland Orchestra many instances at Severance Music Heart, most just lately in October 2021.

Born right into a musical household, she is the daughter of violinist Donald Weilerstein and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and the sister of conductor Joshua Weilerstein. She beforehand carried out along with her mother and father, now primarily based in Boston, because the Weilerstein Trio.

A local of Rochester, N.Y., Weilerstein moved along with her household at age 7 to Cleveland Heights, the place she grew up. She is a 1999 graduate of Cleveland Heights Excessive Faculty and was inducted into the college’s Distinguished Alumni Corridor of Fame in 2012.

A 2000 graduate of the Younger Artist Program on the Cleveland Institute of Music, the place she studied with Richard Weiss, Weilerstein additionally holds a bachelor’s diploma in historical past from Columbia College in New York.

She was acknowledged with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2011.

Weilerstein and her husband, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, divide their time between properties in Montreal and San Diego. They’ve two younger daughters.

We caught up with Weilerstein for a phone interview to debate her upcoming concert events.

Are you enthusiastic about returning to Cleveland for these performances?

Oh sure, Cleveland Orchestra might be certainly one of my very favourite, if not my favourite orchestra, on the earth. As you recognize, Cleveland could be very pleased with its orchestra and must be. It’s at all times a privilege to play with them and to make music with such nice folks and such nice artists, and I’m thrilled to be coming again.

First, you’ll carry out Barber’s Cello Concerto Could 4 and 6. Have you ever carried out this piece in live performance up to now?

I’ve carried out it many instances, and in reality, I really carried out it with the Cleveland Orchestra six years in the past, I imagine, with Alan Gilbert conducting. By the way in which, I made my debut with him (conducting) the Cleveland Orchestra after I was 13. Alan is an effective buddy and an amazing colleague, as properly, and we’ve carried out a substantial quantity of labor collectively in varied locations.

What makes this piece by Barber particular for you?

It’s a masterpiece by itself. It’s actually well-crafted in addition to being very unique when it comes to its harmonic language and number of language.

It’s additionally a very nice car for the cello. It’s some of the virtuosic, technically spectacular concertos within the literature. Whereas it’s difficult to play, it’s actually enjoyable to play and it’s enjoyable to take heed to additionally.

I perceive the concerto consists of three actions. Are you able to describe what characterizes every motion?

The primary motion, I’d name it reflective with an edge. It gives a really substantial cadenza, which is the cello enjoying alone for a number of minutes. It’s very gripping when it comes to its language.

Barber’s music usually has a form of innocence about it, and this piece does, too. Though it was written in 1944, towards the tip of the Second World Warfare, you undoubtedly hear the time interval that it was written in and also you hear the darkness in it.

The second motion I’d say is sort of cinematic, really. It would remind you of the most effective film scores of that point interval. It’s very romantic, very lush and exquisite. You’ll additionally hear a canon between the oboe and the cello. There’s one thing very lovely and really melancholic about it.

The final motion is a tour de drive, particularly for the cello. It’s wild and fairly radical in a manner for Barber, for those who examine it to a few of his different works. It’s actually rousing, thrilling and enjoyable, although it’s obtained a pointy, satirical edge to it additionally. It’s actually simply great music.

On Could 11, you’ll be performing the primary installment of your “Fragments” venture at Severance Music Corridor. Is that this the identical program you performed April 1 at Carnegie Corridor?

Sure. The premiere of “Fragments” was in January in Toronto. There will likely be six applications in all.

What does “Fragments 1″ encompass?

The whole venture is about six hours of music in whole, and every program is about one hour lengthy. “Fragments 1,” which is 62 minutes, consists of Bach’s first suite full. Nevertheless, it’s interspersed with 5 new works, which even have a number of actions.

I’ve deconstructed these items and reordered them, and I reordered the Bach suite, as properly, so there’s no full piece which is performed in its written order. I’ve created a one-hour-long arc, which is actually enjoyable to do.

What impressed this venture?

I believe everybody most likely had their very own private low level throughout the lockdown as a result of (coronavirus) pandemic. My private one was round November or December 2020. I put the cello away for a short while; for 10 days or perhaps even two weeks, I didn’t actually play, which is a really very long time.

I lastly simply pressured myself to take it out sooner or later and I began enjoying some scales. I stored telling myself, ‘We’re going to have to return again someway.’ So then I assumed, how can we reimagine what it’s prefer to expertise it collectively in a single communal house? When do we actually really feel linked to the performer and to the music and actually be current within the second and never be worrying concerning the exterior world, simply listening to these composers’ voices?

So all of those ideas had been going by my head, and that was when a form of flash of inspiration hit me. I simply began laying concepts down of how I wished the viewers to expertise music, and in addition modern music, in a brand new manner. I wished to totally embrace our modern world with out sacrificing the distinctive mental and aesthetic qualities, and most significantly, emotional qualities that I believe our artwork type, classical live performance music, does so properly. And so I used to be making an attempt to marry all of this stuff collectively whereas I used to be creating “Fragments.”

How did you lastly get began with the venture?

This venture gestated for about 2½ years earlier than its world premiere in Toronto in January. It entailed speaking to every particular person composer, and I pitched my concepts to all of them. So I talked to twenty-eight composers; 27 mentioned sure, to be a part of the venture.

One other essential a part of that is I wished to have a good time the most effective of what’s being written at this time by a really wide selection of composers. However I additionally wished to discover a group that was very various when it comes to stage of profession – and racially and ethnically very various – and it’s a very outstanding group of individuals. It makes me very joyful that I obtained to know these great folks higher.

What’s your foremost aim that you simply hope to attain by this “Fragments” venture?

Connection — between the viewers and performer but in addition connection between the acquainted and the brand new and between these composers. What’s actually attention-grabbing is I requested all of them to do the identical factor. I requested them to jot down me as much as 10 minutes of music in two or three fragments of actions that would every stand alone as a result of I informed them that I used to be most likely not going to play them of their written order. After all, I don’t break up actions throughout the motion. And so they all went for it. These are 27 particular person, outstanding items that I obtained again, and it was such a pleasure to observe this type of creation occur in real-time.

What do you hope the viewers members will get out of it?

A very visceral, emotional and – dare I say – hypnotic expertise.

So there are six applications of “Fragments” altogether, every that includes a distinct Bach cello suite. What number of years will this take to carry out?

“Fragments” 1, 2, 3 and 4 are out now and obtainable to the world, and 5 and 6, we’ll roll these out within the subsequent 12 months and a half, by someday in 2025. One and a pair of are being carried out a number of instances over the remainder of this season, this coming summer time and the next season.

I believe it’s going to have a really lengthy life. A number of venues are already committing to all six applications, which takes a while. We’re all in it for the lengthy haul – not simply me, but in addition Elkanah Pulitzer, who’s the director, Seth Reiser, who’s the (scenic and) lighting designer, and the remainder of our artistic crew.

I see that there will likely be a post-concert dialogue with you and the “Fragments” artistic crew on Could 11. Is it your hope that this may give viewers members extra perception into the method?

Sure, I believe it’s one thing good to do, and it’s additionally a technique to join with the viewers. The viewers solely receives very normal data earlier than the live performance begins. There are venture descriptions, the size of the efficiency and the names of the composers that will likely be on this particular section, however you don’t know what you’re listening to in real-time. You get that half afterward.

I would favor that the viewers not get caught up in (lots of particulars concerning the particular person composers), however slightly take heed to their music first after which discovering all of that different stuff out. I simply assume that we hear extra deeply, extra viscerally and with a extra emotional a part of ourselves once we take heed to the music first.

Are there every other tasks you’re engaged on presently?

I’m at all times engaged on many issues. “Fragments” takes up various my time, however I’m at all times sporting many various hats.

After Cleveland, I’m going straight to San Francisco, the place I’m doing a duo recital (Could 14) with Inon Barnatan, who’s a implausible pianist. He additionally occurs to be my duo associate of a few years and an amazing buddy, and so we’re actually wanting ahead to enjoying collectively. I’ve a European tour in June. I’m happiest after I’m doing many issues.

“Weilerstein Performs Barber” will likely be carried out with the Cleveland Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (Could 4) and eight p.m. Saturday (Could 6) in Mandel Live performance Corridor at Severance Music Heart, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Weilerstein’s “Fragments 1″ is about for 7:30 p.m. Could 11 in Mandel Live performance Corridor at Severance Music Heart. To buy tickets for each concert events, go to clevelandorchestra.com.