You have trust in your own preparation and process. What advice do you have for younger musicians in high-pressure audition or performance situations? So I watched him teach others, and then he taught me. He's a wonderful teacher he doesn't have the time to teach regularly, but he's just fantastic, and he also really tailored his advice to what people needed individually. I remember I played in a masterclass for Yo-Yo Ma, actually, when I was 13. I don't go in trying to preach a vision or something like that, it all comes down to what the student needs.
ALISA WEILERSTEIN HOW TO
But I try to kind of forget about that and focus on the individual student and what they need and how to prioritize the most important things-where I think I can actually make an impact in a short amount of time. Well, it's funny because a masterclass is sort of a manufactured situation where you're teaching in front of an audience and there's kind of a pressure to produce a change in the students right away, and you're also trying to bring the audience with you. How do you approach the masterclasses you give? Not the whole thing of course, but I really loved the Commendatore scene it was one of my favorites, so we listened to that together quite often. Another thing: My father and I had kind of a ritual, we would listen to Don Giovanni every night before I went to bed. They would sometimes teach in the house, and I went to concerts from a very early age and the radio was always on. My father was a quartet player, of course: He was the first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet for 20 years, so the quartet players would often rehearse in the house.
My earliest musical memories were just watching my parents practice and rehearse in the house. What are some of your first memories of growing up in that environment? As she said in her masterclass-about Beethoven-“This is where you can get that sharp contrast between what was going on historically and what was going on inside the person the difference between the universal and the personal.” After delivering a masterclass for SFCM students in May, she later spoke with us about some of the extra-musical aspects of her life. Weilerstein has graced innumerable stages-but she can still recall the advice, lessons and odd moments that have come along the way. (Weilerstein records for Pentatone, the record label acquired by SFCM in 2022.) Since then, Weilerstein’s reputation has only grown, which was a tall order: She made her Carnegie Hall debut at 15 and performed for President Barack Obama in 2009. “If there’s such a thing as ‘cello mojo,’ Alisa Weilerstein has it,” NPR declared in 2011. Watch Opus 3 artist Weilerstein’s masterclass for SFCM students and read our interview to find out more of her advice for young musicians-and the time she broke a string five notes into a performance.