So far, 2015’s been busy for Josh Weilerstein.
First, a guest appearance in early January with the Grand Rapids Symphony in Grand Rapids, Michigan, featuring a piano concerto by Antonin Dvorak and an orchestral work by contemporary American composer Christopher Rouse, as well as Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3.
Then a puddle jump to Bournemouth, England, on Great Britain’s southern coast in early February. That performance included works by Sergei Rachmaninov, Edvard Grieg, and Jean Sibelius.
Weilerstein is a 2012 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance awardee, and has taken the podium for many international orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic.
The Grand Rapids Press called Weilerstein’s direction, “engaging, even playful on the podium, conducting in great detail as needed, but also stepping back and letting the orchestra work its musical magic as well.”
And the conductor himself told Bournemouth’s Daily Echo that, “this program is a real orchestral showcase, from the warm, passionate string sound that is so typically Sibelius, to the virtuosic, brilliant, and profoundly dark Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances, which show Rachmaninov in a very different light to how he is normally portrayed, as well as Grieg’s wildly popular Piano Concerto, which is a piece that I can never get tired of.”
