Ariel Quartet
Alisa Weilerstein, cello

Distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned, fiery performances, the Ariel Quartet has garnered critical praise worldwide for more than 20 years. Formed when the members were just teenagers studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel, the Ariel was named a recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, granted by Chamber Music America in recognition of artistic achievement and career support. The Quartet serves as the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where they direct the chamber music program and present a concert series in addition to maintaining a busy touring schedule in the United States and abroad.

Recent highlights include the Ariel Quartet’s Carnegie Hall debut, a series of performances at Lincoln Center together with pianist Inon Barnatan and the Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as the release of a Brahms and Bartók album for Avie Records. In 2020, the Ariel gave the U.S. premiere of the Quintet for Piano and Strings by Daniil Trifonov, with the composer as pianist for the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati.

In their 2023-24 season, the Ariel Quartet presents performances of an anniversary commission by Matan Porat. A longstanding friend of the Ariel Quartet, Matan Porat’s new work is a universally relatable journey about the complexities of string-quartet-life over the years. Upcoming performances include ones for the Aspect Chamber Music Series, Perlman Music Program, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Charleston Chamber Music Society, and the Chamber Music Society of Central Kentucky.

The Quartet has dedicated much of its artistic energy and musical prowess to the groundbreaking Beethoven quartets and has performed the complete Beethoven cycle on five occasions throughout the United States and Europe. The Ariel Quartet regularly collaborates with today’s eminent and rising young musicians and ensembles, including pianist Orion Weiss, cellist Paul Katz, and the American, Pacifica, and Jerusalem String Quartets. The Quartet has toured with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and performed frequently with pianists Jeremy Denk and Menahem Pressler. In addition, the Ariel served as Quartet-in-Residence for the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program, as well as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Festival.

Formerly the resident ensemble of the Professional String Quartet Training Program at the New England Conservatory, from which the players obtained their undergraduate and graduate degrees, the Ariel was mentored extensively by acclaimed string quartet giants Walter Levin and Paul Katz. It has won numerous international prizes in addition to the Cleveland Quartet Award: Grand Prize at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Székely Prize for the performance of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and Third Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. About its performances at the Banff competition, the American Record Guide described the group as “a consummate ensemble gifted with utter musicality and remarkable interpretive power” and noted, in particular, their playing of Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, as “the pinnacle of the competition.”

Alisa Weilerstein is one of the foremost cellists of our time. Known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment, and rare interpretive depth, she 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 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 new commissions in a multi sensory production by Elkhanah Pulitzer. In the 2024-25 season, she premieres FRAGMENTS 3 at San Diego’s Jacobs Music Center, gives the New York premieres of FRAGMENTS 2 and 3 at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and performs the complete cycle at Charleston’s Spoleto Festival USA.

Weilerstein regularly appears alongside preeminent conductors with the world’s major orchestras. Versatile across the cello repertoire’s full breadth, she is a leading exponent of its greatest classics and an ardent proponent of contemporary music, who has premiered important new concertos by Pascal Dusapin, Matthias Pintscher, and Joan Tower. In 2024-25, she brings to life three more concertos, premiering Thomas Larcher’s with the New York Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony, Richard Blackford’s with the Czech Philharmonic, and Gabriela Ortiz’s with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at L.A.’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Bogotá’s Teatro Mayor, and Carnegie Hall. Her other 2024-25 highlights include season-opening concerts with the San Diego and Kansas City Symphonies; returns to the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras; and duo recitals with Inon Barnatan at Stanford University and in Boston’s Celebrity Series.

As an authority on Bach’s music for unaccompanied cello, in spring 2020 Weilerstein released a best-selling recording of his solo suites for Pentatone, streamed them in her innovative #36DaysOfBachproject, and deconstructed his beloved G-major prelude in a Vox.com video, now viewed more than 2.2 million times. Her discography also includes chart-topping albums and the winner of BBC Music’s “Recording of the Year” award.

Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at nine years old, Weilerstein is a staunch advocate for the T1D community. She lives with her husband, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, and their two young children.