A Family Of Musical Geniuses

From left: Musicians Don, Alisa and Vivian Weilerstein. Not included is Joshua Weilerstein. (Courtesy of the Weilerstein family)

We know that musician Leopold Mozart was proud of his son Wolfgang Amadeus; imagine how proud you’d be if you were the parents of two musical prodigies.

Vivian and Don Weilerstein are. Their 29 year-old daughter, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, just won the MacArthur genius grant. And this summer her 23 year-old brother Joshua Weilerstein was named one of two assistant conductors at the New York Philharmonic.

And Vivian and Don are musicians themselves– they’re on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and The Julliard School, respectively.

Between the four of them, someone is almost always rehearsing, performing or traveling somewhere to perform or teach. We managed to get the entire family together at one time, to talk about their musical lives.

Boston.com: He’s Taken The Baton And Run With It
YouTube: Joshua Weilerstein Condust The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra Of Venezuela
YouTube: Alisa Weilerstein Plays With The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra Of Venezuela
NEC Music: Weilerstein Trio Concert On October 30
YouTube: Three Year Old ‘Conducts’ Beethoven

Guests:

Vivian, Don Alisa and Joshua Weilerstein, all musicians

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Cynkirk

Thank you for this wonderful story on music’s family values!
Valerie Smith

How wonderful to discover this story, and to hear about a family of musical geniuses! The Baha’i Writings attest to the great importance of music in our lives, and for acquiring distinction, and this is so very clear with this distinctive family. Thank you for this interview.