In Friday’s (8/5) Boston Globe, David Weininger profiles 23-year-old conductor Joshua Weilerstein, speaking with him at “the Aspen Music Festival, where he is serving as assistant conductor this summer, one in a series of recent vocational leaps. In 2009, the year he received his bachelor’s degree from [New England Conservatory], he won both first prize and the audience prize at the Copenhagen-based Malko International Competition for Young Conductors. Two weeks ago, he was named one of two assistant conductors at the New York Philharmonic, where he will spend the year attending rehearsals with and covering for conductors … Conducting is a notoriously difficult field in which to make a career, but Weilerstein, at only 23, is off to an unusually fast start. … His parents—violinist Donald and pianist Vivian—are both NEC faculty members, and his sister, Alisa, a cellist with a thriving international career. … So how does someone in their 20s bring the requisite authority to the podium? ‘As much as possible, I want the orchestra to have their own ideas and be open about their ideas,’ Weilerstein said. … ‘[If] I have a huge amount of respect for them, but I also have my own ideas about the piece, I think it can work really well.’ ”
Posted August 5, 2011
