Director

The year is 1147, and the brilliant, pioneering composer Hildegard von Bingen is receiving visions from God. There’s always the chance that the church will turn on her as a heretic, but she decides to document her visions, enlisting her fellow nun Richardis von Stade to illustrate the manuscript. As their passion project bleeds into passion, the two women are forced to confront the powers that would see them struck from history rather than making it.

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Hildegard

The Walls Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Based on Georg Büchner’s play Woyzeck, Berg’s opera is a harrowing and brilliant critique of the cycles of suffering imposed by systems of power, laced with moments of wry humor that expose the absurdity of human folly. It reveals how decisions driven by war, greed, and disregard for human lives cascade downward, devastating the less fortunate while reflecting on universal struggles that resonate across time. Berg’s expressionist opera is acknowledged as the most important of the early 20th century.

Wozzeck

West Edge Opera

In Alisa Weilerstein’s ground-breaking performance series FRAGMENTS, new music by some of the most compelling composers of our time meets the timeless beauty of Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello.

New commissions by 27 different composers are interwoven with the individual movements of the Bach Suites. The result is a collection of six different FRAGMENTS performances in total, curated by Alisa and underscored with bespoke lighting, scenic architecture and costume design from a world-class team of creatives. Each of the six FRAGMENTS performances embodies its own striking identity that transforms the Bach Cello suites in turn.

Alisa Weilerstein: Fragments

College of Charleston Sottile Theatre

Alisa Weilerstein’s multi-year performance series FRAGMENTS brings together new commissions by some of today’s most compelling composers with the timeless beauty of J. S. Bach’s six suites for solo cello. During Carnegie Hall’s 2024–2025 season, Weilerstein presents FRAGMENTS 2 and 3, in which new works are woven together with the Second and Third cello suites, responsive lighting, and scenic architecture, inviting audiences into an immersive, multisensory experience.

Alisa Weilerstein: FRAGMENTS 3

Carnegie Hall

Who said that passion and politics make for poor bedfellows? Experience Handel’s captivating love story of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, whose audacious affair rewrote the course of history. As sparks fly between these two rulers, love becomes a battlefield, and the most important conquest is that of the heart. But with pretenders to the throne lurking on all sides, desire can sometimes be a double-sided weapon.

Julius Caesar

Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts

Join us for an unforgettable evening as Washington Performing Arts presents the innovative and theatrical new project, "Fragments," featuring the extraordinary cellist Alisa Weilerstein. This unique performance is set to take place on Saturday, April 6, 2024, at 7:30 PM at the prestigious John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Terrace Theater.

"Fragments" is a groundbreaking project conceived by the MacArthur Genius Award recipient, Alisa Weilerstein. The project brings together an eclectic mix of 27 composers from nine different nationalities, offering a diverse range of musical styles. The evening's performance will feature an intriguing arc that intersperses movements of Bach cello suites with 10-minute fragments of newly commissioned works, including compositions by Alan Fletcher, Ana Sokolović, Caroline Shaw, Daniel Kidane, Gity Razaz, and Johann Sebastian Bach himself.

This D.C.-premiere performance is not just a concert; it's an immersive experience designed to challenge conventional concert norms and add a layer of theatricality to the classical music experience. The project aims to reimagine what a cello recital can be, engaging the audience in a more immediate and visceral response to the music.

The 7:30 PM performance holds the special distinction of being the second-annual Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Recital, an annual event by Washington Performing Arts to honor the legacy of a cherished friend and elevate the work of both established and emerging artists.

Please note, due to the unique nature of this performance, there will be absolutely no late seating. The performance will last for 60 minutes without an intermission.

Washington Performing Arts is committed to accessibility, ensuring that visitors of all abilities can experience this remarkable performance. For specific accessibility inquiries regarding Kennedy Center events, please visit the Kennedy Center's accessibility page or contact Washington Performing Arts directly.

Don't miss this opportunity to witness Alisa Weilerstein's "Fragments," a performance that promises to be a highlight of the classical music season.

Alisa Weilerstein, cello

Kennedy Center

Renowned cellist Alisa Weilerstein returns for the second installment of her groundbreaking, multi-year project FRAGMENTS. This innovative series weaves together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works. The resulting collection is divided into six Fragments, each an hour long and blending five to six composers, to be released independently over several seasons—the first of these graced our stage in the 2022–23 season. Within each Fragment, individual movements from a single Bach suite are thoughtfully integrated with selected new works to create a new emotional arc. Enhanced by responsive lighting and scenic architecture, the music is performed without pause and without a program, making for a wholly original and immersive audience experience.

Alisa Weilerstein: Fragments 2

Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

Alisa Weilerstein’s FRAGMENTS 2 weaves together Bach’s Cello Suites with newly commissioned compositions for an ambitious multisensory concert experience.

Fragments 2

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Weilerstein’s FRAGMENTS weaves together Bach’s Cello Suites with newly commissioned compositions for an ambitious multisensory concert experience.

Fragments

60th Anniversary of the nuclear crisis aboard a B-59 Soviet submarine. Presented in partnership with the Wende Museum of the Cold War.

Arkhipov

Kirk Douglas Theatre

She was his queen. He was her downfall.  San Francisco Opera's 100th Season begins with John Adams' thrilling new opera, commissioned for the Company's centennial and conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim.

Director

Elkhanah Pulitzer

Events

Past events

5 - 9 Nov, 2025

Hildegard · LA Opera

9 - 17 Aug, 2025

Wozzeck · West Edge Opera

About

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