Alisa Weilerstein’s 2025–26: FRAGMENTS UK and European debuts; Southbank Centre residency; performances of Gabriela Ortiz, Joan Tower, and Unsuk Chin concertos; collaborations with Payare and Gilbert; much more
(September 2025) —MacArthur Award-winning cellist Alisa Weilerstein’s groundbreaking six-part multisensory solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS,” has both its European and UK debuts this fall. After Weilerstein plays the European debut of FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder at Rotterdam’s de Doelen (Sep 20), she gives the program its UK debut as part of her 2025–26 residency at London’s Southbank Centre (Sep 27). A chamber performance with frequent collaborators pianist Inon Barnatan and violinist Stefan Jackiw will also be featured during the fall portion of the residency (Nov 30). Besides European performances of FRAGMENTS 1 & 2 in Prague (March 8), FRAGMENTS 3 – Emergence at Germany’s stARTfestival in Leverkusen (May 19), and a FRAGMENTS program to be determined at the Dresden Festival (May 21), Weilerstein’s season is also filled with high-profile performances of concertos, many of them by 21st-century composers. She reprises Gabriela Ortiz’s Dzonot concerto – written for her – with Marin Alsop and thePhilharmonia Orchestra (March 11, 12) and with her husband Rafael Payare leading the San Diego Symphony (May 9, 10); returns to the co-commissioning Detroit Symphonyfor performances of Joan Tower’s A New Day, also written for Weilerstein and conducted by Music Director Jader Bignamini (Feb 13–15); and returns to the Cleveland Orchestraunder the baton of Alain Altinoglu for performances of Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto (Feb 26–28), after performing the same piece with the same conductor on the podium of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Feb 20). Reaching slightly farther back in the repertoire, she plays the Britten Cello Symphony with Alan Gilbert leading both Staatskapelle Berlin (Nov 24, 25) and his own NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (Jan 22, 23, 25); and performs the Lutosławski Cello Concerto with the Spanish National Orchestra under the baton of Krzysztof Urbański (Jan 30–Feb 1). Weilerstein also plays the Elgar Cello Concerto for the opening of the Atlanta Symphony season, conducted by Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann (Oct 3–5); Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto with the Palm Beach Symphony (Jan 13); and Shostakovich’s Second with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Ryan Bancroft (April 17–19). Duo performances with Barnatan of Brahms Cello Sonatas in Georgia (Nov 16) and California (April 26), following up on their 2024 recording of the works, round out the cellist’s season.
“FRAGMENTS” and Southbank Centre residency
September sees the European and UK premieres of Weilerstein’s FRAGMENTS project, which weaves together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 new commissions to make six unique multisensory programs, each an hour long, for solo cello. After performing FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder at Rotterdam’s de Doelen (Sep 20), Weilerstein launches her 2025–26 residency at London’s Southbank Centre with a reprise of that program as well as FRAGMENTS 2 – Tumult, in afternoon and evening performances on the same day (Sep 27). Other FRAGMENTS performances this season include FRAGMENTS 4 – Labyrinth in San Diego (Oct 29) as a prelude to its debut in Carnegie Hall (Nov 7); FRAGMENTS 1 and 2 together in Prague’s Rudolfinum in the spring (March 8); FRAGMENTS 3 – Emergence at Germany’s stARTfestival in Leverkusen (May 19); and a FRAGMENTS program to be determined at the Dresden Festival (May 21). It was just this past summer that Weilerstein first performed all six parts of the project in one place, at Spoleto Festival USA. In its overview of the festival, Classical Voice North America declared Weilerstein’s performances to collectively be “the most awesome classical-music event this season,” calling them “a creation you literally had to see.”
Weilerstein’s Southbank Centre residency also features pianist Inon Barnatan and violinist Stefan Jackiw, who join the cellist for a program comprising Rachmaninov’s Trio Elegiaque No.1, Ravel’s Piano Trio – celebrating the composer’s 150th birthday – and Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio (Nov 30), which they also perform in Bristol, UK (Nov 28). The three musicians’ 2019 recording of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Alan Gilbert came in for high praise from The Arts Fuse, which wrote: “The solo ensemble plays exceptionally well together, blending beautifully and graciously ceding the solo spotlight among themselves.”
Concertos: Ortiz, Tower, Britten, Lutosławski, Chin
In an interview with Bachtrack in early 2025, Weilerstein discussed the passion for presenting new works that is so well evidenced not only by the short works commissioned for FRAGMENTS but a host of concerto collaborations whose frequency seems to increase with each passing season. She commented:
“I always looked at [Mstislav] Rostropovich as the great inspiration for cellists. He premiered hundreds of works in his life. He had an insatiable curiosity and a desire to expand the repertoire. It’s our duty to take up the torch and build a cello repertoire for the 21st century.”
Besides the milestone of her first complete FRAGMENTS performances at Spoleto, Weilerstein’s 2024–25 season saw the cellist give the world premiere performances of no less than three concertos written for her, two of which were recorded. Gabriela Ortiz’s Dzonot concerto, premiered with Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in fall of 2024, was released last month on the composer’s album Yanga, when Gramophone reported: “Weilerstein and the Los Angelenos play Dzonot with such conviction and technical mastery that I did a double take when I read in the booklet that this recording is taken from the premiere performances.” Richard Blackford’s The Recovery of Paradise, which Weilerstein premiered with the Czech Philharmonic and Tomáš Netopil this past February, is likewise set for release on Pentatone later this month. Weilerstein also played the world premiere of Thomas Larcher’s returning into darkness in April with the New York Philharmonic led by Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, before giving the European premiere of the work in June with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert.
Weilerstein reprises Ortiz’s Dzonot twice in the spring, conducted by Marin Alsop with the Philharmonia Orchestra (March 11, 12) and with Rafael Payare conducting the San Diego Symphony (May 9, 10). Well-known for her deep connection to Latin American folk-music and to the vulnerable and fragile environment of the planet, Ortiz’s new concerto was inspired by the “cenotes,” limestone sinkholes in Mexico which are like underground worlds, with their own rivers, lakes, and plant and animal life.
Another concerto recently written for Weilerstein, Joan Tower’s 2021 A New Day, will be the vehicle for the cellist’s return to the Detroit Symphony, which co-commissioned the work (Feb 13–15). Written for Tower’s husband, who was struggling with severe illness and passed away a year later, the concerto was premiered by Weilerstein at the Kennedy Center in 2022, when the Washington Post found it to be “one of the most exciting works of the season,” continuing:
“Early on, Weilerstein introduced a vocabulary of arcing glissandos and serrated harmonics that would slice through the surface of the ‘day’ like recurring anxieties. But her playing also drew a fully formed figure, a personality, the presence of a protagonist moving through the whirl of the world painted by the orchestra.”
The cellist follows up on her “awe-inspiring” (San Diego Story) performance of Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto with Payare and the San Diego Symphony this past spring with two more performances, both under the baton of French conductor Alain Altinoglu: with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Feb 20) and then in a return to the Cleveland Orchestra(Feb 26–28). Weilerstein also performs two works written for Rostropovich himself: Britten’s Cello Symphony, for which she reunites with Alan Gilbert on the podium of both Staatskapelle Berlin (Nov 24, 25) and his own NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg (Jan 22, 25) and Lübeck (Jan 23); and the Lutosławski Cello Concerto, which she performs with the Spanish National Orchestra under the baton of Krzysztof Urbański (Jan 30–Feb 1).
Chamber performances
Longtime friends and collaborators, Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan released a recording of Brahms‘s two Cello Sonatas, alongside their arrangement for the cello of his Violin Sonata in G major, on the Pentatone label in 2024. Gramophone’s reviewer raved that the recordings “have a frisson that had me scouring the booklet to double-check that they were, in fact, studio recordings (they are),” going on to praise their “concert-like electricity” and concluding “Weilerstein and Barnatan’s new recording goes straight to the top of my list.” This season, besides reuniting for chamber performances in the UK with Stefan Jackiw, Weilerstein and Barnatan give duo recitals in Morrow, Georgia (Nov 16) and Palm Desert, California (April 26). Repertoire includes both Brahms’s Cello Sonatas, juxtaposed with two sonatas by Shostakovich: his Cello Sonata in D minor and his Sonata for Viola and Piano.
“FRAGMENTS” for solo cello
Alisa Weilerstein, project creator & performer
Elkhanah Pulitzer, director
Hanako Yamaguchi, artistic producer & advisor
Seth Reiser, set & lighting design
Molly Irelan, costume design
Featured composers:
Andy Akiho, J.S. Bach, Courtney Bryan, Chen Yi, Alan Fletcher, Gabriela Lena Frank, Osvaldo Golijov, Joseph Hallman, Gabriel Kahane, Daniel Kidane, Thomas Larcher, Tania León, Allison Loggins-Hull, Missy Mazzoli, Gerard McBurney, Jessie Montgomery, Reinaldo Moya, Jeffrey Mumford, Matthias Pintscher, Gity Razaz, Gili Schwarzman, Caroline Shaw, Carlos Simon, Gabriella Smith, Ana Sokolović, Joan Tower, Mathilde Wantenaar, Paul Wiancko
Leadership support for “FRAGMENTS” is generously provided by Joan and Irwin Jacobs. Patron support for “FRAGMENTS” is provided by Judy and Tony Evnin, Clara Wu Tsai, and Paul Sekhri. “FRAGMENTS” has been made possible with commissioning support from the San Diego Symphony, UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures, Carnegie Hall, Celebrity Series of Boston, and the Royal Conservatory of Music for the 21C Festival. Special thanks to Martha Gilmer for her leadership and counsel, and to Celebrity Series of Boston and Aspen Music Festival and School for their in-kind contributions.
Alisa Weilerstein: 2025–26 engagements
Sep 20
Rotterdam, Netherlands
de Doelen
FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder
Sep 23
London, UK
RCM Masterclass
Sep 27 at 3 pm
London, UK
Queen Elizabeth Hall
FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder
Sep 27 at 6 pm
London, UK
Queen Elizabeth Hall
FRAGMENTS 2 – Tumult
Oct 3–5
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
ELGAR: Cello Concerto
Oct 29
San Diego, CA
FRAGMENTS 4 – Labyrinth
Nov 7
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
FRAGMENTS 4 – Labyrinth
Nov 16
Atlanta, GA
Duo Recital with Inon Barnatan
BRAHMS: Sonata for Cello and Piano in D, Op. 78
SHOSTAKOVICH: Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op. 40
BRAHMS: Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38
SHOSTAKOVICH: Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147
Nov 24, 25
Berlin, Germany
Staatskapelle Berlin
Alan Gilbert, conductor
BRITTEN: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68
Nov 28
Bristol, UK
St. George’s Church
Inon Barnatan, piano
Stefan Jackiw, violin
RACHMANINOV: Trio Elegiaque No.1 in G minor
RAVEL: Piano Trio
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in B-flat, Op. 97, No. 7, “Archduke”
Nov 30
London, UK
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Inon Barnatan, piano
Stefan Jackiw, violin
RACHMANINOV: Trio Elegiaque No.1 in G minor
RAVEL: Piano Trio
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in B-flat, Op. 97, No. 7, “Archduke”
Jan 13
Palm Beach, FL
Palm Beach Symphony
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 1
Jan 22, 25
Hamburg, Germany
NDR Elbphilharmonie
Alan Gilbert, conductor
BRITTEN: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68
Jan 23
Lübeck, Germany
NDR Elbphilharmonie
Alan Gilbert, conductor
BRITTEN: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68
Jan 26
London, UK
Wigmore Hall
Jan 30–Feb 1
Madrid, Spain
Spanish National Orchestra
Krzysztof Urbański, conductor
LUTOSŁAWSKI: Cello Concerto
Feb 13–15
Detroit, MI
Detroit Symphony
Jader Bignamini, conductor
Joan TOWER: A New Day concerto for cello (DSO co-commission)
Feb 20
Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Alain Altinoglu, conductor
Unsuk CHIN: Cello Concerto
Feb 26–28
Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Orchestra
Alain Altinoglu, conductor
Unsuk CHIN: Cello Concerto
March 8
Prague, Czechia
FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder
FRAGMENTS 2 – Tumult
March 11, 12
London, UK
Philharmonia Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor
Gabriela ORTIZ: Dzonot
April 17–19
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Ryan Bancroft, conductor
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 2
April 26
Palm Desert, CA
Duo with Inon Barnatan
May 9–10
San Diego, CA
San Diego Symphony
Rafael Payare, conductor
Gabriela ORTIZ: Dzonot
May 19
Leverkusen, Germany
stARTfestival
FRAGMENTS 3 – Emergence
May 21
Dresden, Germany
Dresden Festival
FRAGMENTS TBC
May 24
Dresden, Germany
Dresden Cello Night