NOVEMBER 20, 2025 – A Type I diabetes diagnosis at nine years old did nothing to stop Alisa Weilerstein from becoming a world-renowned cellist. On Tuesday, January 13 at 7:30 p.m., Weilerstein will perform in what promises to be unforgettable night of emotional intensity and orchestral majesty joining Palm Beach Symphony for a Masterworks Series Concert at Dreyfoos Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. Renowned for her passionate and precise interpretations, Weilerstein will perform Dmitry Shostakovich’s gripping Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 107.

Weilerstein is a staunch advocate for the T1D community, serving as a consultant for the biotechnology company eGenesis and as a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the world leader in T1D research.

One of the foremost cellists of our time, Weilerstein 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 preeminent conductors and orchestras worldwide.

“Alisa is a sensational, passionate cellist,” said Palm Beach Symphony Music Director Gerard Schwarz. “I was close friends with her father, Donald Weilerstein, who was first violin of the Cleveland Quartet and then a longtime teacher at the New England Conservatory.”

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.

Weilerstein has appeared with all the major orchestras of the United States, Europe and Asia. In 2009, she was one of four artists invited by Michelle Obama to participate in a widely celebrated and high-profile classical music event at the White House, featuring student workshops hosted by the First Lady and performances in front of an audience that included President Obama and the First Family.

Born into a musical family in 1982, Weilerstein is the daughter of violinist Donald Weilerstein and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and the sister of conductor Joshua Weilerstein. She discovered her love for the cello at just two and a half when she had chicken pox and her grandmother assembled a makeshift set of instruments from cereal boxes to entertain her. Although immediately drawn to the Rice Krispies box cello, Weilerstein soon grew frustrated that it didn’t produce any sound. After persuading her parents to buy her a real cello at the age of four, she developed a natural affinity for the instrument and gave her first public performance six months later. In 1995, at 13, she made her professional concert debut, playing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Cleveland Orchestra, and in March 1997 she made her first Carnegie Hall appearance with the New York Youth Symphony. A graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Weilerstein also holds a degree in history from Columbia University.

Tickets to Weilerstein’s performance range from $27.50 to $104.50 and may be purchased online at PalmBeachSymphony.org or by phone at (561) 281-0145.