Airplane Diaries

Alisa Weilerstein

I think it’s appropriate that I’m writing my first blog (ever—not only on this site) while flying between Madrid and Copenhagen. I’ve taken to telling people I live on airplanes lately, which is sort of true since I catch up on sleep most often while I’m in the air, and I’ve only been in my actual apartment for four days so far this year.

I’ve been in Europe for a few days and for the first time in awhile am experiencing some serious transatlantic jetlag. I can’t sleep before 4:30 a.m. and waking up in the morning (in other words, when the sun is up…) has been difficult, to put it mildly. I just finished three concerts in Madrid, playing Osvaldo Golijov’s incredible Azul. Given my perpetually bleary-eyed state each one of them went surprisingly well.

In a sense I felt I had tapped into some other energy source that I’m normally perhaps too “present” to reach. I had heard stories of people playing fantastic concerts when they really had no right to do so—a story of a friend of mine who played one of the best concerts of his life with a fever of 104 degrees comes to mind–but I was convinced that I haven’t really been privy to such experiences myself. That is until I really started to think about this strange phenomenon, and suddenly remembered an extremely intense, almost out-of-body experience several years ago; the only time I’ve played in Australia. I went there for a three week tour playing Rococo Variations and Shostakovich 1st Concerto back in 2001. It took twenty hours in the air to get there from Vancouver, so needless to say I was completely turned around. My first concert was two days after I landed also, which in retrospect wasn’t the most practical planning in the world! I don’t remember every single detail of that concert, but I remember discovering colors and ideas that had previously eluded me, even in the rehearsals that preceded that concert. Then at the end of the third variation, things got very strange. Right after the mini-recitative moment, when it reaches the E Major arpeggios, I started to feel extraordinarily (and very pleasantly!) relaxed. I felt myself ascending those arpeggios as if in slow motion, my fingers moving entirely of their own accord, and when I reached the final arpeggio accompanied by those beautiful harmonics in the violins…I actually felt myself starting to dream! My eyes were closed on the final E in the stratosphere and I felt completely in character, like I was floating off the stage carried by some giant helium balloon. Then luckily reality kicked in and I snapped myself back out of my suspended, twilight-zone state to carry on. I finished the performance and no one mentioned my brief episode at all—the only comments I got that evening in fact were about how “inspired” the performance was. Given my state of mind at the time, I am obviously in no position to judge how the performance actually went, but it was one of the strongest reactions from an audience and orchestra that I’ve received for that piece, even to this day. Besides, I also really enjoyed the experience!!

So, where am I going with all this? Am I suggesting that we all try to mimic a jetlagged state to reach new heights while performing? Definitely not, but it certainly is making me reassess what actually goes on in one’s mind while onstage. So far I think the jetlagged state forced all unnecessary thought from my mind. I don’t normally have an issue with nerves, no matter what state I’m in. But I sometimes catch myself thinking of practical issues while onstage, issues that are appropriate to think about while learning and practicing a piece but really have no place onstage. I don’t want to think about the angle of my hand or shifting speed when I’m performing—ideally I want to feel completely spontaneous, as if any physical or technical decision is made purely because the music demands it in the moment. I think I came closer to reaching that feeling in Madrid this week and I enjoyed it immensely. My Australia experience was certainly extreme and a bit scary, but it was also one of the most enjoyable Rococos I’ve ever played. I’m going to land in Denmark soon, where I’m also playing Azul. Looking forward to more adventures onstage, jetlagged-induced and otherwise!

Subjects: Travel

AUTHOR

Alisa Weilerstein

American cellist Alisa Weilerstein has attracted widespread attention for playing that combines a natural virtuosic command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship. The intensity of her playing has regularly been lauded, as has the spontaneity and sensitivity of her interpretations. Following her Zankel Hall recital debut in 2008, Justin Davidson of New York Magazine said: “Whatever she plays sounds custom-composed for her, as if she has a natural affinity with everything.”

A major highlight of Ms. Weilerstein’s 2009-10 season was performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Daniel Barenboim in Oxford, England for the orchestra’s 2010 European Concert. This concert was televised live worldwide, broadcast on the BBC and will be released on DVD. This performance, which followed her Berliner Philharmoniker debut with Mr. Barenboim days earlier, was described by Tom Service of The Guardian as “…the most technically complete and emotionally devastating performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto that I have ever heard live…”. Ms. Weilerstein also performed this concerto in August at her Edinburgh International Festival debut with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä.

In November 2009, Ms. Weilerstein was one of four artists selected to perform at a White House classical music event that included student workshops hosted by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, and performing for guests including President Obama and the First Family. In December 2009 she performed as soloist on a tour of Venezuela with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, led by Gustavo Dudamel. In May 2010 she made her LA Philharmonic debut with Mr. Dudamel performing the Dvorak Cello Concerto.

In August 2010 she made her BBC Proms debut with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä performing Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and she will perform this work on a 14-city tour with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic led by Yuri Temirkanov and Nikolai Alexeev in 2010. This tour includes performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington and Carnegie Hall.

Other highlights of Ms. Weilerstein’s 2010-11 season include: recitals with pianist Inon Barnatan at London’s Wigmore Hall and in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center; performing with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester led by Matthias Pintscher in Berlin; performing Matthias Pintscher’s Reflections on Narcissus with the Tonhalle Orchestra and Mr. Pintscher in Zurich; three recitals with singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane of a new song cycle for cello and piano composed by Mr. Kahane based on a poem by Galway Kinnell; performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto with pianist Jeremy Denk, violinist Chee Yun and conductor Marek Janowski with the San Francisco Symphony; and making her debuts with the National Orchestra of Spain, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra performing Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul.

Ms. Weilerstein has been continually engaged by orchestras across the U.S. and has performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, the Seattle Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, among others. In Europe she has performed with the Barcelona Symphony, Berliner Philharmoniker, Bournemouth Symphony, Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, Hallé Orchestra, Leipziger Bachkollegium, NDR Hamburg, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.

Conductors Ms. Weilerstein has performed with include Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Hans Graf, Manfred Honeck, Paavo Jarvi, Jeffrey Kahane, Louis Langrée, Andrew Litton, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Ludovic Morlot, Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Kirill Petrenko, David Robertson and Osmo Vänskä.

In addition to her performances as a soloist, Ms. Weilerstein 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. In December 2010 Ms. Weilerstein will give her first public performance under the baton of her younger brother and the winner of the 2009 Malko Competition for Young Conductors, Joshua Weilerstein, with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.

In 2008 Alisa Weilerstein was awarded Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal prize for exceptional achievement and she was named the winner of the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award. She received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2000 and was selected for two prestigious young artists programs in 2000-01; the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) “Rising Stars” recital series and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two. Ms. Weilerstein also recorded a CD for EMI Classics’ “Debut” series in 2000.

Alisa Weilerstein’s love for the cello began when she was just two-and-a-half after her grandmother assembled a makeshift set of instruments out of cereal boxes to entertain her when she was ill with the chicken pox. Alisa was instantly drawn to the Rice Krispies box cello but soon grew frustrated that it didn’t make a sound. After convincing her parents to buy her a real cello when she was four, 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 has been appointed artist-in-residence at the Institute beginning August 2009 which will see her visit the campus to work with cello students. In May 2004, she graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in Russian History.

In November 2008 Ms. Weilerstein, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was nine, was made a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She meets with members of the local chapters of JDRF when she tours with the aim of demonstrating to young people that living with and managing diabetes does not stop you from doing anything you want to do.

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