Alisa Weilerstein’s 2026–27 highlights
- FRAGMENTS performances in Asia, San Diego, and Carnegie Hall concluding complete cycle
- Europe and U.S. concerto engagements: Marsalis, Larcher, Strauss, Prokofiev in BSO residency
- Elgar and Beethoven Triple on U.S. tour with London SO, ending in Carnegie Hall
- Recitals celebrating 20 years of music-making with Inon Barnatan
(September 2026) —MacArthur Award-winning cellist Alisa Weilerstein’s groundbreaking six-part multisensory solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS” – the focus of a cover feature in the October 2025 issue of The Strad – continues with a season of notable milestones in 2026–27. After recent back-to-back performances of FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder and FRAGMENTS 2 – Tumult in both Taipei and Shanghai – marking the first Asian performances of the series – she completes a cycle of premieres that have spanned several seasons in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with FRAGMENTS 6 – Radiance (Nov 5). A nearly complete cycle of performances in San Diego continues in the spring with FRAGMENTS 5 – Lament (April 16). Another FRAGMENTS performance will take place at Tanglewood in summer 2027, as part of Weilerstein’s season-long residency with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), which also includes orchestral and chamber performances and educational workshops. Upcoming high-profile concerto engagements for Weilerstein include the European premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Cello Concerto, “Journey to Freedom” with the Netherlands Philharmonic and conductor Hannu Lintu (Oct 31 & Nov 2); the Austrian premiere of Thomas Larcher’s cello concerto, returning into darkness – composed for Weilerstein – with the co-commissioning Tonkünstler Orchestra (Nov 28–30); Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by Cristian Mӑcelaru (Jan 22 & 23), and then with her husband, Rafael Payare, leading his Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) (May 19 & 20); and Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Pittsburgh Symphony (Oct 16 & 18), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (March 18–20), and as part of her BSO residency under the baton of Paavo Järvi (Feb 4–6). Weilerstein also joins the London Symphony Orchestra on tour in the U.S. this season (Feb 18–March 14), playing Elgar’s Cello Concerto conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. After performances in London, California, Michigan, and Florida, the tour culminates with a performance at Carnegie Hall in which the cellist plays Beethoven’s Triple Concerto along with violinist Maxim Vengerov and pianist Kirill Gerstein. Weilerstein also plays a series of duo recitals – including one as part of the residency in Boston (April 18) – with her longtime friend and collaborator, pianist Inon Barnatan, as they celebrate 20 years of making music together.
FRAGMENTS in Taipei, Shanghai, New York, and San Diego
Weilerstein’s ongoing FRAGMENTS project, which weaves together the 36 movements of Bach’s cello suites with 27 new commissions to make six unique hour-long programs, had multiple European premieres last season in addition to its ongoing performances across the U.S. When all six parts of FRAGMENTS were presented in one place in summer 2025 at Spoleto Festival USA, 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.” The cellist discussed the project at length – as well as playing solo pieces from it by Joan Tower and Osvaldo Golijov – with host John Schaefer on a recent edition of WNYC’s “Soundcheck” program.
Watch Weilerstein perform on WNYC’s “Soundcheck”
Each individual FRAGMENTS performance has its own dramatic arc, but the cycle also has an overall theatrical shape that allows for effective combinations of sequential parts. As Weilerstein related to WNYC, she thinks of the first part as “the gateway to everything,” while she sees FRAGMENTS 2 as “going down a rabbit hole – there’s a lot of angst in it and darkness.” For the first Asian performances of FRAGMENTS earlier this month, she presented the sequence of FRAGMENTS 1 – Wonder and FRAGMENTS 2 – Tumult in single-day, two-segment programs in Taipei and Shanghai. The first program intersperses the movements of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 with compositions by Allison Loggins-Hull, Gili Schwarzman, Joan Tower, Reinaldo Moya, and Chen Yi. FRAMENTS 2 – Tumult features the movements from Cello Suite No. 2 melded with music of Alan Fletcher, Ana Sokolovic, Caroline Shaw, Daniel Kidane, and Gity Razaz.
Parts 5 and 6 of the FRAGMENTS series – subtitled “Lament” and “Radiance” – show the resolution of the overall dramatic arc. FRAGMENTS 6 – Radiance – featuring works by Andy Akiho, Gabriela Lena Frank, Gabriella Smith, Jessie Montgomery, and Tania León alongside Bach’s Sixth Cello Suite – will have its premiere in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall this season, completing the cycle Weilerstein began in the venue in 2023 (Nov 5). Meanwhile, the cycle is nearing completion in San Diego, where Weilerstein presents FRAGMENTS 5 – Lament (April 16), incorporating the fifth of Bach’s Cello Suites, which has the darkest personality of the set. Weilerstein’s WNYC performance included Osvaldo Golijov’s The Last Moho Braccatus from FRAGMENTS 5, a sad tribute to a Hawaiian bird, now extinct, that was the last of his species after his mate was killed in a hurricane; the set also includes music by Gabriela Lena Frank, Gabriella Smith, Gerard McBurney, and Mathilde Wantenaar.
Season-long residency with Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO)
Weilerstein’s residency with the BSO this season includes orchestral performances and recitals, as well as educational workshops with the BSO’s Project STEP and the New England Conservatory, and a FRAGMENTS performance at Tanglewood in summer 2027. The residency kicks off with a solo recital that includes two of Bach’s Cello Suites, Nos. 1 and 3, as well as Kodály’s Sonata in B minor for Solo Cello and Joan Tower’s For Alisa, composed as part of Weilerstein’s FRAGMENTS project (Nov 8). In February, the cellist joins the BSO for performances of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante under the baton of Paavo Järvi in his Symphony Hall debut with the orchestra (Feb 4–6); and in the spring she gives a duo recital with her longtime collaborator Inon Barnatan on piano (April 18). Further performances of the Prokofiev and more recitals with Barnatan are detailed below.
Concerto engagements in U.S. and Europe
Even before the extravagant 27 new commissions involved in FRAGMENTS, Weilerstein was a tireless champion of new music and favorite collaborator for contemporary composers. This fall, she joins the co-commissioning Netherlands Philharmonic under the baton of Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu for the European premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Cello Concerto “Journey to Freedom,” a five-movement work incorporating American musical idioms from jazz to Appalachian bluegrass fiddling and work songs (Oct 31 & Nov 2). A month later, Weilerstein performs the Austrian premiere of Thomas Larcher’s cello concerto, returning into darkness, with the co-commissioning Tonkünstler Orchestra, led by French conductor Fabien Gabel (Nov 28–30). Larcher, whose music has been praised as “one of this century’s wonders” (The Times, UK), composed the work for Weilerstein, who gave the world and European premieres in 2025 with two other co-commissioners: the New York Philharmonic and the Bavarian Symphony Radio Orchestra.
Weilerstein’s fresh perspectives on works from the standard cello repertoire are no less celebrated than her contemporary performances. The coming season features several such works, beginning with Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote, a tone poem with cello and viola soloists who respectively portray the title character and his squire, Sancho Panza. Weilerstein performs the work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) under the baton of Cristian Mӑcelaru – with CSO principal viola Christian Colberg joining in the role of Sancho (Jan 22 & 23) – before reprising it later in the spring with Rafael Payare leading the OSM in a program comprised entirely of Strauss tone poems (May 19 & 20).
Weilerstein’s schedule includes two other sets of performances of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante besides the ones featured in her BSO residency. The work was composed for a young Mstislav Rostropovich and completed in 1952, the year before the composer’s death. Weilerstein has been a “profound champion” of the demanding work, who “dispatche[s] every technical test with astonishing ease and visceral joy” (The New York Times). She first performs the work this season with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Juraj Valčuha (Oct 16–18); and following the Boston performances she performs it with the Chicago Symphony led by James Gaffigan (March 18–20).
Weilerstein also revisits Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in the spring, performing the work under the baton of Ryan Bancroft with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki (April 28 & 29). When she recorded the work in 2016 with Pablo Heras-Casado and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Classical Voice North America raved: “Weilerstein’s performance of the Second Concerto is magnificent. She manages the fearsome technical demands with no obvious strain and powerfully conveys the sense of struggling against one’s fate before succumbing to the inevitable.”
LSO tour and more
The year after she won a MacArthur “Genius” Award in 2011, Weilerstein famously recorded Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Daniel Barenboim leading the Staatskapelle Berlin. The significant critical acclaim for the album included being named “Recording of the Year 2013” by BBC Music Magazine. Her 2025 season-opening performance of the same concerto with Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra moved ArtsATL to marvel:
“There are times, as with Weilerstein’s performance, where the technical facility disappears into the background because it was only a vehicle to take us into the spiritual core of the player and the music they seek to embody. … That level of theatrical mastery is what was on display in Weilerstein’s performance: It ceased to be the sound of a cello; it ceased to be the sound of music; it was, simply and hauntingly, a pure and undiluted capturing of the human spirit in auditory form.”
This season provides more high-profile opportunities for Weilerstein to perform the Elgar, most prominently when she plays the concerto on a U.S. tour with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and Sir Antonio Pappano (Feb 18–March 7). Following a performance in London, the cellist showcases the concerto at destinations in California, Michigan, and Florida. The final stop on the tour is at Carnegie Hall, where in place of the Elgar Weilerstein performs Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, joined by violinist Maxim Vengerov and pianist Kirill Gerstein (March 14).
Leading up to the LSO tour, Weilerstein performs the Elgar in two other settings, both in collaboration with family members. In Birmingham, UK, she gives a performance of the piece with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra led by her brother, Joshua Weilerstein (Dec 2), and after the New Year the same work takes her back to the San Diego Symphony, with Payare conducting (Jan 29 & 30).
Chamber strings and collaborations with Inon Barnatan
This past May, Weilerstein was in Carnegie Hall for a favorite work: Schubert’s String Quintet, for which she was joined by an all-star chamber group of violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Gil Shaham, violist Antoine Tamestit, and cellist Pablo Ferrández. This season she returns to the venue with Kavakos, Shaham, and Tamestit, this time adding violist Lawrence Power and cellist Kian Soltani, to perform Brahms’s two String Sextets, which are being heard in the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for the first time in 30 years (April 7).
Weilerstein’s longstanding relationship with chamber partner Inon Barnatan, “one of the most admired pianists of his generation” (The New York Times), has yielded three acclaimed duo albums and more than a decade of live collaborations. This season they are celebrating 20 years of making music together with a series of recitals in Kansas City, MO (Oct 9), Davis, CA (May 13), Seattle (May 15), and San Francisco (May 16), in addition to the one in Boston as part of Weilerstein’s BSO residency (April 18). Their program comprises de Falla’s Suite populaire espagnole, selected Shostakovich Preludes arranged for cello and piano by Lera Auerbach, and G-minor cello sonatas by both Chopin and Rachmaninoff, which they recorded on their first duo album in 2015.
Alisa Weilerstein: 2026–27 engagements
Oct 9
Kansas City, MO
Harriman-Jewell Series
Duo with Inon Barnatan
Oct 16 & 18
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante
Oct 17
Pittsburgh, PA
PSO360: Alisa Weilerstein
Oct 31 & Nov 2
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Netherlands Philharmonic
Hannu Lintu, conductor
MARSALIS: Cello Concerto (European Premiere)
Nov 5
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
FRAGMENTS 6 – Radiance
Nov 8
Boston, MA
Cathedral of St. Paul
Joan TOWER: For Alisa
BACH: Cello Suite No. 3 in C, BWV 1009
BACH: Cello Suite No. 1 in G, BWV 1007
KODÁLY: Sonata in B minor for Solo Cello
Nov 28 & 29
Vienna, Austria
Tonkünstler Orchestra
Fabien Gabel, conductor
LARCHER: returning into darkness
Nov 30
Saint Pölten, Austria
Tonkünstler Orchestra
LARCHER: returning into darkness
Dec 2
Birmingham, UK
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Joshua Weilerstein, conductor
ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Jan 22 & 23
Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Cristian Mӑcelaru, conductor
R. STRAUSS: Don Quixote
Jan 29 & 30
San Diego, CA
San Diego Symphony
Rafael Payare, conductor
ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Feb 4-6
Boston, MA
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi, conductor
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante
Feb 18–March 7: London Symphony Orchestra U.S. Tour
Feb 18: London, UK
Feb 26 & 27: Palm Desert, CA
March 4: Ann Arbor, MI
March 6: Orlando, FL
March 7: West Palm Beach, FL
London Symphony Orchestra
ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
March 14
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
London Symphony Orchestra (U.S. tour)
Maxim Vengerov, violin
Kirill Gerstein, piano
BEETHOVEN: Triple Concerto, Op. 56
March 18–20: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
March 18 & 20: Chicago, IL
March 19: Wheaton, IL
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
James Gaffigan, conductor
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante
April 7
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
Great Artists III
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Gil Shaham, violin
Lawrence Power, viola
Antoine Tamestit, viola
Kian Soltani, cello
BRAHMS: String Sextet No. 1
BRAHMS: String Sextet No. 2
April 16
San Diego, CA
FRAGMENTS 5: Lament
April 18
Cambridge, MA
Thomas Tull Concert Hall, MIT
Recital w/ Inon Barnatan
DE FALLA: Suite populaire espagnole
CHOPIN: Sonata No. 3 in G minor, Op. 65
SHOSTAKOVICH (arr. Auerbach): Seven Preludes from Op. 34
RACHMANINOFF: Sonata in G minor, Op. 19
April 28 & 29
Helsinki, Finland
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ryan Bancroft, conductor
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concerto No. 2
May 13
Davis, CA
Recital w/ Inon Barnatan
DE FALLA: Suite populaire espagnole
CHOPIN: Sonata No. 3 in G minor, Op. 65
SHOSTAKOVICH (arr. Auerbach): Seven Preludes from Op. 34
RACHMANINOFF: Sonata in G minor, Op. 19
May 15
Seattle, WA
Recital w/ Inon Barnatan
DE FALLA: Suite populaire espagnole
CHOPIN: Sonata No. 3 in G minor, Op. 65
SHOSTAKOVICH (arr. Auerbach): Seven Preludes from Op. 34
RACHMANINOFF: Sonata in G minor, Op. 19
May 16
San Francisco, CA
Recital w/ Inon Barnatan
DE FALLA: Suite populaire espagnole
CHOPIN: Sonata No. 3 in G minor, Op. 65
SHOSTAKOVICH (arr. Auerbach): Seven Preludes from Op. 34
RACHMANINOFF: Sonata in G minor, Op. 19
May 19 & 20
Montreal, QC, Canada
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Rafael Payare, conductor
STRAUSS: Don Quixote