Cellist Alisa Weilerstein Wonders 'Bout Sound and Meaning, In-Studio

Alisa Weilerstein is more than just a virtuoso cellist; she is also a winner of the MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called “genius” award. There is a real genius in the way Alisa Weilerstein connects music in her solo concerts, combining core classical pieces and commissioning new works to expand the solo cello repertoire. Take, for example, her latest project called Fragments, which is a multimedia series that weaves 27 newly-commissioned pieces into all of the solo cello suites by J.S. Bach. She imagines an arc of listening, where one might hear Serbian-born, Quebec-based composer Ana Sokolović; American-born Joan Tower; cellist/composer Paul Wiancko; percussionist/composer Andy Akiho; American composer Jeffrey Mumford; J.S. Bach, and Argentinian Osvaldo Golijov all on the same bill and tied together. Alisa offers a sample of this exploration of sound and meaning, with a little bit of birdsong, in-studio.  (-Caryn Havlik)

Set list: 1. Joan Tower - For Alisa, and  J.S. Bach - Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, Prelude, BWV 1007  
2. Osvaldo Golijov - The Last Moho Braccatus and J.S. Bach Cello Suite no. 5 in C minor, Courante, BWV 1011