Mr. Oliveira's repertoire is among the most diverse of any of today's preeminent artists. While he has been hailed for his performances of the standard violin literature, he is also a much sought-after interpreter of the music of our time. He has premiered works by such distinguished composers as Krysztof Penderecki, Morton Gould, Ezra Laderman, Charles Wuorinen, Joan Tower, Aaron Kernis, Andrzej Panufnik, Benjamin Lees, Nicholas Flagello, Leonard Rosenman, Hugh Aitken, and Richard Yardumian. He has also performed seldom-heard concerti by Alberto Ginastera, Einoujuhani Rautavaara, Joseph Achron, Joseph Joachim, and many others.

A prodigious recording artist, Elmar Oliveira was a Grammy nominee for his CD of the Barber Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony. His discography on Artek, Angel, SONY Masterworks, Vox, Delos, IMP, Naxos, Ondine, and Melodiya ranges widely from works by Bach and Vivaldi to the Present. His best-selling recording of the Rautavaara Violin Concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic (Ondine) won a Cannes Classical Award and has appeared on Gramophone's "Editor's Choice" and other Best Recordings lists around the world.

The son of Portuguese immigrants, Mr. Oliveira was nine when he began studying the violin with his brother John. He later continued his studies with Ariana Bronne and Raphael Bronstein at the Hartt College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, where Mr. Oliveira also received an honorary doctorate. Other honors include an honorary doctorate from Binghamton University and the Order of Santiago, Portugal's highest civilian honor. He has served on the juries of some of the most prestigious violin competitions, including the Montreal, Indianapolis, Naumburg, and Vianna da Motta. Elmar Oliveira performs on an instrument known as the "Stretton," made ca. 1729-30 by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, and on several other violins by outstanding contemporary makers.

Mr. Oliveira is a Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida.

Alisa Weilerstein, Cello Soloist

Alisa Weilerstein has performed with America's top orchestras, given recitals in music capitals throughout the U.S. and Europe, and regularly participates in prestigious international festivals. She is also dedicated to performing chamber music, having grown up in a family of musicians with whom she collaborated from an early age. Regularly lauded for her interpretive instincts coupled with technical prowess, the New York Times wrote of a performance that Ms. Weilerstein "radiated such concentration and pleasure...that watching her became a lesson in the art of listening." Following her recent New York Philharmonic debut, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto, Newsday wrote that "to hear Weilerstein play is to experience the serenity of being in a master's hands."

During the 2006-07 season Ms. Weilerstein made her New York Philharmonic subscription debut performing the Elgar Cello Concerto with Zubin Mehta conducting, and performed with the Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel in Tokyo during the Philharmonic's 2006 Japan-Korea visit. She also made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach conducting, and gave recitals with violinist Maxim Vengerov and pianist Lilya Zilberstein at Carnegie Hall, La Salle Pleyel in Paris and the Barbican in London. Other highlights of Ms. Weilerstein's 2006-07 season included performances with the Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and the Moscow State Symphony as part of their U.S. tour. This past summer Ms. Weilerstein gave the New York premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's cello concerto, Azul, during the opening concerts of the Mostly Mozart Festival.

During the 2007-08 season Ms. Weilerstein will perform with the Detroit Symphony under Sir Andrew Davis, the Pittsburgh Symphony under Marek Janowski, the San Diego Symphony under Jahja Ling, the San Francisco Symphony under David Roberston, and the Toronto Symphony under Peter Oundjian, among many other engagements. She will also give several recitals throughout the U.S., including the Celebrity Series in Boston. Abroad she will perform with the NDR Hamburg under Manfred Honeck, the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel at the Hong Kong Festival, and will give recitals in Bergamo, Bologna, and Milan, Italy.

Ms. Weilerstein has given recitals in music centers across the U.S., including Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco. She performed at The Louvre in her Paris recital debut in September 1999. Other notable engagements have included an eight-city tour of Japan, featuring a Suntory Hall performance in March 1999, a concert tour of Australia, and Florida tours with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 2000 and 2002.

Alisa Weilerstein was the recipient in 2000 of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and was selected for two prestigious young artists programs in 2000-01, the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) "Rising Stars" recital series and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two.  As part of the ECHO series in 2000-01, Ms. Weilerstein gave recitals at seven celebrated concert halls in Europe (Symphony Hall in Birmingham, Wigmore Hall in London, Athens Concert Hall, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam) as well as at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), which nominated her to be part of the series.  Ms. Weilerstein also released an acclaimed recording on EMI Classics' "Debut" series in 2000 including works by Paganini, Dvorak, Ginastera, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Janacek, Saint-Saens, Faure and De Falla.

Born in 1982, Alisa Weilerstein began playing the cello at age 4 and performed her first public concert six months later. She often plays with her parents, Donald and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, as the Weilerstein Trio, which is the Trio-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory in Boston.  Her Cleveland Orchestra debut was in October 1995, at age 13, playing the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in March 1997.  Ms. Weilerstein is a graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Richard Weiss.  In May 2004, she graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in Russian History.


Photo by Christian Stein

Jian Wang began to study the cello with his father when he was four. While a student at the Shanghai Conservatoire, he was featured in the celebrated documentary film From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China.  Mr Stern's encouragement and support paved the way for him to go to the United States and in 1985 he entered the Yale School of Music under a special programme where he studied with the renowned cellist Aldo Parisot. 

During the 2007/8 season Jian Wang’s engagements include the Camerata Salzburg, Gulbenkian Orchestra and a tour of Spain with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In the Far East he also has return engagements with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Singapore and Taiwan National Symphony Orchestras.  Last season, Jian Wang’s performances included the Florence Maggio Musicale/Dudamel, City of London Sinfonia/Hickox and a major tour of the Far East with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and their music director Jiri Belohlavek.

Jian Wang’s first professional engagement was in 1986, at New York’s Carnegie Hall.  Since then he has embarked on an international career, early highlights including concerts with the Mahler Youth Orchestra/Claudio Abbado and with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly (in Amsterdam and on tour in China).  He has also performed with many of the world’s other leading orchestras including Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit Cleveland and Chicago Symphony; NHK Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Stockholm Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia, Halle (UK), Scottish Chamber, Mahler Chamber and the National Orchestra of France. These concerts have been with many of the greatest conductors, such as Ashkenazy, Dutoit, Chung, Gilbert, Krivine, Sawallisch, Neeme Jarvi, Eschenbach, Dausgaard, Wigglesworth and Harding.