Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Alisa Weilerstein (Rochester, USA, 1982) started playing the cello at four years of age and made her concert-stage debut when she was thirteen. As a soloist she has performed with a number of major orchestras on four continents. She is also active in chamber music and performs with her parents, violinist Donald Weilerstein (the founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet) and pianist Vivian Hornik-Weilerstein, as the Weilerstein Trio.  A champion of contemporary music, Alisa Weilerstein has worked extensively with composers such as Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach and Joseph Hallman, several of whose works, written specifically for her, she premiered. Alisa Weilerstein plays a cello made by William Forster in 1790. 

German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt studied at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” with Boris Pergamenschikow and later with Eberhard Feltz. He is also a conductor and the Artistic Director of various festivals.  Altstaedt enjoys playing contemporary music and has performed works by composers such as Thomas Adès, Fazil Say, Jörg Widmann, Matthias Pintscher, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Helena Winkelman. New concertos have recently been composed for him by Anders Hillborg, Márton Illés, Erkki-Sven Tüür, and Liza Lim. His interpretations and performances of Baroque and classical music are unparallelled; as a soloist in J.S. Bach’s solo suites as well as in collaboration with lutist Thomas Dunford and harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, and with Ensemble Arcangelo in their recording of the complete cello concertos by C.P.E. Bach and Boccherini. In 2018, Nicolas Altstaedt was the Artist in Spotlight at the Concertgebouw, and has been the Artistic Director of the Internationales Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus since 2012, succeeding Gidon Kremer. He has also been the Artistic Director and conductor of the Haydn Philharmonie since 2014.