Cellist Alisa Weilerstein To Perform Schumann's Cello Concerto With Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, 3/18

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra presents its final concert of the 2016-17 season at Carnegie Hall in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on Saturday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m. The orchestra is joined by cellist and MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient Alisa Weilerstein for Schumann's Cello Concerto-the product of a brilliant composer on the brink of insanity. Additionally, the program includes Mendelssohn's Nocturno for Winds; Webern's Five Movements for strings; and Schubert's Symphony No. 6, his tribute to Rossini, Haydn, and Mozart.

The program premieres on Friday, March 17 at 7:00 p.m. at the Reformed Church of Bronxville in Bronxville, New York.

Program Information

Saturday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Alisa Weilerstein, cello

MENDELSSOHN Nocturno for Winds
SCHUMANN Concerto for Cello
WEBERN Five Movements for Strings
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 6

Ticket Information
Subscriptions for Carnegie Hall concerts can be purchased by visiting orpheusnyc.org or calling (212) 896-1704. Single tickets for the March 18th performance, priced at $12.50 - $110, are available for purchase at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, at 57th and Seventh, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website at carnegiehall.org.

About Alisa Weilerstein
"A young cellist whose emotionally resonant performances of both traditional and contemporary music have earned her international recognition, ... Weilerstein is a consummate performer, combining technical precision with impassioned musicianship," stated the MacArthur Foundation, when awarding American cellist Alisa Weilerstein a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship.

Weilerstein's 2016-17 season includes, for the first time in her career, performances of Bach's complete suites for unaccompanied cello: at Caramoor, in Washington, DC, and in London. In January she embarks on a nine-city U.S. tour with longtime recital partner Inon Barnatan and clarinetist Anthony McGill, including a concert in New York's Alice Tully Hall and performances of a Joseph Hallman premiere composed for this trio. She tours Europe with Barnatan later in the spring, with stops in Salzburg and at London's Wigmore Hall. Her busy international concert schedule this season features performances around the globe: she performs Britten's Cello Symphony with the New World Symphony; Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic, and the National Symphony in both Washington, DC and Moscow; Prokofiev's Sinfonia concertante with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the Dallas Symphony; Schumann with the San Francisco Symphony, and at Carnegie Hall in the company of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with which she then tours the same program to Italy and Spain; Elgar with the Staatskapelle Weimar; Walton with Amsterdam's Residentie Orkest; and Dvo?ák with the Minnesota Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, and the Tokyo Symphony on a three-stop tour of Japan, where she will also play four solo recitals. The cellist performs Henri Dutilleux's Tout un monde lointain... with Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra, and gives the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher's Cello Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which co-commissioned the piece for her.

As an exclusive Decca Classics recording artist, Weilerstein releases her fifth album in September, playing Shostakovich's two cello concertos with the Bavarian Radio Symphony under Pablo Heras-Casado, in performances recorded live last season. Her discography also includes Dvo?ák's Cello Concerto; Solo, her compilation of unaccompanied 20th-century cello music; and Elgar and Elliott Carter's cello concertos with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, which was named BBC Music's "Recording of the Year 2013."

Weilerstein's career milestones include an emotionally tumultuous account of Elgar's concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Barenboim in Oxford, England, and a performance at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama. An ardent champion of new music, she has worked on multiple projects with Osvaldo Golijov and Pintscher and premiered works by Lera Auerbach and Joseph Hallman. She appears at major music festivals worldwide, and regularly collaborates with Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the El Sistema education program.

Weilerstein, whose honors include Lincoln Center's 2008 Martin E. Segal prize and the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award, is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Columbia University. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, she is a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

About Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
A standard-bearer of innovation and artistic excellence, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is one of the world's foremost chamber orchestras. It was founded in 1972 by a group of like-minded young musicians determined to combine the intimacy and warmth of a chamber ensemble with the richness of an orchestra. With 71 albums, including the Grammy Award-winning Shadow Dances: Stravinsky Miniatures, and 43 commissioned and premiered original works, Orpheus rotates musical leadership roles and strives to perform diverse repertoire through collaboration and open dialogue. Performing without a conductor, Orpheus presents an annual series at Carnegie Hall and tours extensively to major national and international venues.

About Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Educational Initiatives
Orpheus has trademarked its signature mode of operation, the Orpheus Process®, an original method that places democracy at the center of artistic execution. It has been the focus of studies at Harvard University and of leadership seminars at IBM, Morgan Stanley, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, among others. Two unique education and engagement programs, Access Orpheus™ and Orpheus Institute®, aim to bring this approach to students of all ages.

Access Orpheus™ shares the orchestra's collaborative music-making process with public school students from all five boroughs in New York City. Due to declining resources for arts education, many public schools do not have access to full-time arts teachers to provide music instruction and exposure to art and culture. Access Orpheus™ helps to bridge this gap with in-class visits, attendance at Working Rehearsals, masterclasses with guest artists, and free tickets for performances at Carnegie Hall.

Orpheus Institute® brings the Orpheus Process® and the orchestra's musicians to select colleges, universities, conservatories, and businesses to work directly with leaders of tomorrow. Corporate employees and students in all fields of study learn from Orpheus' creative process and in areas of collaboration, communication, creative problem solving, and shared leadership. In the coming seasons, Orpheus will continue to share its leadership methods and performance practices as the ensemble provides audiences with the highest level of musicianship and programming.