Donald Weilerstein

Violinist Donald Weilerstein concertizes extensively on the international stage as soloist and chamber musician, recording artist, and violin pedagogue. A member of Young Concert Artists, he is a winner of the Munich ARD International Music Competition for violin/piano duo. He was the founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet for 20 years (1969–89), with which he toured and recorded on labels such as RCA, Telarc, CBS, Philips, and Pro Arte. These recordings earned seven Grammy nominations and won Best of Year awards from Time and Stereo Review.

Weilerstein has appeared at major American and European music festivals including Aspen, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Berlin, Salzburg, Luzern, Verbier, Keshet Eilon, and Tanglewood. He regularly teaches and performs at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the Steans Institute in Ravinia, and the Perlman Music Program. Weilerstein has recorded a diverse repertoire that includes the complete Bloch violin/piano works, Dohnányi, Janácek, the Enescu sonatas (Arabesque), the three Schumann sonatas (Azica), and Bach’s Solo Sonatas and Partitas (Azica).

Weilerstein is a former faculty member at the Cleveland Institute, Paris Conservatoire, Bowdoin College, Ithaca College, and SUNY-Buffalo, and current faculty member of the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School. Weilerstein’s students have won prizes in prestigious international competitions and positions in leading chamber ensembles and orchestras.

Weilerstein received his BM and MS at Juilliard studying under Ivan Galamian, Dorothy DeLay, and members of the Juilliard String Quartet, and was the first recipient of the Fritz Kreisler Memorial Scholarship. He joined the Juilliard faculty in 2001 and the Pre-College faculty in 2010.