The Program

Beethoven: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 5, No. 2
Britten: Cello Sonata in C Major, Op.65
Stravinsky: Suite Italienne
Rachmaninov: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19

The Artists

American cellist Alisa Weilerstein has attracted widespread attention for playing that combines a natural virtuosic command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship.  At 27 years old, she is already a veteran on the classical music scene having performed with the nation’s top orchestras, given recitals in music capitals throughout the U.S. and Europe, and having regularly appeared at prestigious festivals.  She performs regularly as a chamber musician.  She is part of a core group of musicians that performs at the Spoleto Festival USA each year and she also performs with her parents, Donald and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, as the Weilerstein Trio, which is the Trio-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

Alisa Weilerstein began playing the cello at four years old after her grandmother assembled a makeshift instrument out of cereal boxes for her to play with while she was sick with the chicken pox.  After convincing her parents to buy her a real cello, she showed a natural affinity for the instrument and performed her first public concert six months later.  Her Cleveland Orchestra debut was in October 1995, at age 13, playing the Tchaikovsky “Rococo” Variations. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in March 1997.  Ms. Weilerstein is a graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Richard Weiss, and she was appointed artist-in-residence at the Institute in 2009.  For more information on Alisa Weilerstein visit www.alisaweilerstein.com.

Pianist Inon Barnatan has established an international reputation as a pianist of uncommon depth and maturity.  Born in Tel Aviv, he has earned acclaim in a variety of repertoire from Beethoven to Messiaen to Schubert.  A winner of the 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Barnatan recently performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Concertgebouw, and the 92nd Street Y.  An enthusiastic chamber music player, Barnatan frequently performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has collaborated with such musicians as the Jerusalem String Quartet, Itzhak Perlman, Jonathan Biss, Cho-Liang Lin, Miriam Fried and Gary Hoffman.  Barnatan was awarded the prestigious Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Prize in Rockport in 2008.  For more information on Inon Barnatan visit www.inonbarnatan.com.