Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) presents

Presented as part of the Festival Bach Montréal

Alisa Weilerstein

Initiated by internationally acclaimed cellist Alisa Weilerstein, FRAGMENTS is a pioneering project that combines lighting effects and theatrical sets to create an ever-changing palette of emotions. Bridging past and present, each fragment weaves together movements from one of Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello with newly commissioned works. A novel concert format for you to experience!

Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment and rare interpretive depth, she was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2011. Today her career is truly global in scope, taking her to the most prestigious international venues for solo recitals, chamber concerts and concerto collaborations with all the preeminent conductors and orchestras worldwide. “Weilerstein is a throwback to an earlier age of classical performers: not content merely to serve as a vessel for the composer’s wishes, she inhabits a piece fully and turns it to her own ends,” marvels the New York Times. “Weilerstein’s cello is her id. She doesn’t give the impression that making music involves will at all. She and the cello seem simply to be one and the same,” agrees the Los Angeles Times. As the UK’s Telegraph put it, “Weilerstein is truly a phenomenon.”

With her multi-season solo cello project, “FRAGMENTS,” Weilerstein aims to reimagine the concert experience. Comprising six programs, each an hour long, the series sees her weave together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works. Performed in a multisensory production directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, featuring responsive lighting and scenic elements, each program offers a fully immersive and visceral listening experience. “At its core, FRAGMENTS is about connection,” Weilerstein explains. “I wanted to find new ways of connecting audience with performer, the familiar with the new, and composers of varying generations and backgrounds with one another.” After premiering the first two programs at Toronto’s Koerner Hall in early 2023, the 2022-23 season saw subsequent performances at Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall, San Diego’s Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Tanglewood music festival’s Ozawa Hall, among others. In the 2023-24 season, Weilerstein returns with the project to the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center and performs selected FRAGMENTS programs at Boston’s Sanders Theatre, Maison symphonique de Montréal, Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She looks forward to touring all six programs in seasons to come.

As a champion of contemporary music, commissioning new works for “FRAGMENTS” is just one of the ways Weilerstein has demonstrated her commitment to expanding the cello repertoire. As well as premiering important new concertos written for her by three leading contemporary composers – Joan Tower’s A New Day (2021), Matthias Pintscher’s un despertar (2017) and Pascal Dusapin’s Outscape (2016) – she has worked extensively with Lera Auerbach, Osvaldo Golijov, Joseph Hallman and Thomas Larcher.

Maison symphonique
Friday, November 10, 2023 at 7:00pm

To purchase your tickets visit: www.placedesarts.com