Artist Profile: Alisa Weilerstein Strips Music to its Essence in ‘FRAGMENTS’

Alisa Weilerstein is building bridges with her music. In her latest project, “FRAGMENTS” — which arrives at Sanders Theatre on Nov. 5 — the renowned cellist deepens connections between the audience and the performer, the familiar and the new, concert music and theater, and disparate composers. By disengaging with social expectations surrounding concert music, “FRAGMENTS” immerses its audience in a journey of diverse sound, spontaneous reaction, and visceral emotion.

In an interview with the Harvard Crimson, Weilerstein unpacked the process and philosophy of “FRAGMENTS,” a six-part concert series interweaving the 36 movements of Bach’s six Cello Suites with original pieces from 27 contemporary composers. Quite literally an assembly of musical fragments, the solo cello concerts will be performed over several years.

Weilerstein’s career boasts acclaimed performances of both classical repertoire and self-commissioned contemporary concertos. In 2011, her extraordinary artistry was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship. In the 2023-24 season, she will headline concerts with prominent orchestras across the globe, from Boston to Barcelona. To top it all off, she will perform “FRAGMENTS 1,” “FRAGMENTS 2,” and “FRAGMENTS 4.”

The inspiration for the connection-centered “FRAGMENTS” arrived in a period of stagnant isolation. In late 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown, Weilerstein found herself ruminating on canceled performances and lost connections. As she wondered what the landscape of musical reconnection would look and feel like, the concept of “FRAGMENTS” dropped into her mind, fully formed.

“Ultimately I think this is music stripped down to its essence, that you’re just listening without so much information and just letting the music come at you without pause in a very kind of concentrated, hypnotic experience. And that’s how I experience music the best, either as a listener or a player,” Weilerstein said.

Weilerstein recruited those across her network as well as composers found on Spotify and YouTube, hoping to bring attention to emerging composers. Ultimately, she commissioned 27 different composers for 10 minutes of music each. While she independently arranged the fragments to form cohesive musical arcs, Weilerstein collaborated with a small team to craft the show’s visuals.

Weilerstein’s sheer love for the Bach Cello Suites as well as their cultural ubiquity empowered her to assign them as the familiar in her fusion of familiar and new. She has previously performed the suites in international concert halls, in a Vox video breakdown of the first prelude, and in her own livestream series titled #36DaysOfBach.

“A core tenet of the project is I don’t do anything if I don’t fully believe in it. So I mean, I need to believe in the music and love the music, first of all, to perform it at my best,” she said.

When it comes to the 27 new pieces, Weilerstein withholds as much information as possible from the audience. To dispel preconceptions, no concert programs are provided before the show. Mental tangents about the composers’ cultural worth, reliance on established shortcuts to evaluating music, and anticipations of what comes next all fall away in favor of direct sensory engagement.

“I’ve always been trying to think about how we can connect better with our audiences and my thesis is that the problem is not the music itself, it’s sometimes how it’s presented and kind of the expectations around it, the conventions around it,” Weilerstein said.

Naturally, Weilerstein also wants to preserve complete surprise regarding the emotional arc of each concert. To uphold unbiased reaction, not even the creator’s ideas should influence others’ reception of the work. Weilerstein did divulge, however, that hearing the intersections and divergences of different interpretations of a single prompt will be a highlight of the experience.

“Some composers really consciously related their music to Bach, some really did not, and others, sort of somewhere in between. And so these connections are really, really fascinating and it's wonderful to hear these pieces together,” she said.

Weilerstein also revealed the concept of the set. With a series of lighting blocks that change color to represent each composer, “FRAGMENTS” visualizes patterns of musical arrangement in a way largely unseen in classical performance. Though they share the format of an hour-long concert and the same set, each of the six programs is unique.

“Each one is very different from one another in terms of its musical language, which therefore informs the visual language,” said Weilerstein.

Of this theater-inspired design, Weilerstein said, “There’s nothing that feels imposed. It always feels like this is coming from inside the music and then out rather than the other way around.”

Although passionate about challenging conventions through “FRAGMENTS,” Weilerstein did not consider her project to be one that encapsulates the future of music. On the contrary, new forms of creativity need to be unique and authentic.

“I want people to do what feels honest to them,” she said.

Amidst the difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic, Weilerstein found that artists became more in tune with what speaks to themselves, as well as what speaks to others.

“When people are brave and can really, you know, access that part of themselves and therefore reach people in a deeper way, I think things work better. So whatever that may be is what I hope people will do,” she said.

Weilerstein certainly lives by this principle, as her fearless, visionary conviction fuels “FRAGMENTS.” Audiences heading to Sanders on Nov. 5 for “FRAGMENTS 1” should shed all expectations, except for that of music unlike anything they’ve ever experienced before.

—Staff writer Isabelle A. Lu can be reached at isabelle.lu@thecrimson.com.