In-School Performances

MATT HAIMOVITZ

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“HEARING A CELLO PLAYED WITH SUCH FERVOR AND COMMITMENT- NOT TO MENTION HIGH ARTISTRY- IS A PRICELESS EXPERIENCE”
Los Angeles Times
“...CALLS FORTH A DAZZLING SPECTRUM OF SOUNDS FROM THE DEPTHS OF HIS INSTRUMENT.”
The New Yorker
“IT WAS SOME OF THE MOST MOVING AND SOULFUL PLAYING HEARD BY THIS LISTENER IN A VERY LONG TIME. ”
The New York Times
“HAIMOVITZ'S INGENUITY, INVENTIVENESS AND THE SHEER RANGE OF SOUNDS HE IS ABLE TO PRODUCE FROM HIS INSTRUMENT IS JAW-DROPPING”
All Music Guide
“...A MUSICIAN WHO POSITIVELY THRIVES ON CHALLENGE...”
The New York Times
“...SENSITIVE AND VIRTUOSIC: THERE IS GREAT POETIC INTIMACY...”
Strad
“MATT HAIMOVITZ GAVE A STUNNING PERFORMANCE”
The Scotsman
“HAIMOVITZ CAN TEASE 1,000 SHADES OF TONE OUT OF A SINGLE STROKE OF HIS BOW AS HE GIVES EACH MOVEMENT ITS OWN TONE - FROM DRIVING AND AGGRESSIVE TO A STILL NEAR-SILENCE.”
Toronto Star
Performance Highlights

05.25.13
Matt Haimovitz / Christopher O’Riley
Tannery Pond Concerts
New Lebanon, NY

05.29.13
Christopher O’Riley
Yoshi's 
San Francisco, CA 

Listen

from the album- Bach: 6 Suites For Cello Solo
Bach Cello Suite No. 1 In G, BWV 1007 – Praeludium
from the album- Goullash!
Ligeti Sonata for Violoncello Solo Part 2
from the album - Shuffle.Play.Listen
Empty Room (Arcade Fire)
Pyramid Song (Radiohead)
Variations on a Slovak Folksong (Martinu)

Biography

Matt Haimovitz

Renowned as a musical pioneer, cellist Matt Haimovitz has inspired classical music lovers and countless new listeners by bringing his artistry to concert halls and clubs, outdoor festivals and intimate coffee houses, any place where passionate music can be heard. He brings a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, champions new music and initiates groundbreaking collaborations as well as creating innovative recording projects for Oxingale Records. He has a tireless touring schedule as well all while mentoring an award-winning studio of young cellists at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Montreal. Through his visionary approach, Haimovitz is re-defining what it means to be an artist for the 21st century.

 

Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. At 17 he made his first recording with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for Deutsche Grammophon. Haimovitz has since gone on to perform on the world’s most esteemed stages, with such orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic with Levine, the New York Philharmonic with Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Kent Nagano. Haimovitz made his Carnegie Hall debut when he substituted for his teacher, the legendary Leonard Rose, in Schubert’s String Quintet in C, alongside Isaac Stern, Shlomo Mintz, Pinchas Zukerman and Mstislav Rostropovich.

 

The solo cello recital is a Haimovitz trademark, both inside and outside the concert hall. In 2000, he made waves with his Bach “Listening-Room” Tour, for which, to great acclaim, Haimovitz took Bach’s beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and into clubs across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Haimovitz’s 50-state Anthem tour in 2003 celebrated living American composers, and featured his own arrangement of Jimi Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner.” He was the first classical artist to play at New York’s infamous CBGB club, in a performance filmed by ABC News for “Nightline UpClose.”

 

Haimovitz’s recording career encompasses more than 20 years of award-winning work on Deutche Grammophon and his own Oxingale Records, the trailblazing independent label he founded with composer/producer Luna Pearl Woolf. Two recent Oxingale albums have been nominated for Juno Awards and the latest release Meeting of the Spirits was nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Classical Crossover Album and won a GRAMMY® for Best Producer of the Year (Classical).

 

Matt Haimovitz’s 2011/12 season features the world premiere of Philip Glass’ Cello Concerto No. 2 in Spring 2012 and a major North American tour and new recording with pianist Christopher O’Riley, Shuffle.Play.Listen, blurring the boundaries between Classical and Pop with music by Stravinsky, Radiohead, Janacek, Arcade Fire, Bernard Herrmann, Mahavishnu, among others. A live recording of Schumann’s Cello Concerto with Gregory Nowak and the Orchestre de Bretagne is scheduled for release in fall 2011 as is a recording of Ligeti’s Cello Concerto with Denys Bouliane and the Contemporary Music Ensemble of McGill University. Ongoing collaborations include a series of concerto commissions with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, string quartets with Mark O’Connor, Ida Kavafian, and Paul Neubauer, and chamber music with Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Michael Tree, David Krakauer, and hip-hop klezmer producer Socalled.

 

In 2006, Haimovitz received the Concert Music Award from ASCAP for his advocacy of living composers and pioneering spirit, and in 2004, the American Music Center awarded Haimovitz the Trailblazer Award, for his far-reaching contributions to American music. Born in Israel, Haimovitz has also been honored with the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1986), the Grand Prix du Disque (1991), the Diapason d’Or (1991) and he is the first cellist ever to receive the prestigious Premio Internazionale “Accademia Musicale Chigiana” (1999). Haimovitz studied at the Collegiate School in New York and at the Juilliard School, in the final class of Leonard Rose, after which he continued his cello studies with Ronald Leonard and Yo-Yo Ma. In 1996, he received a B.A. magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University. Matt Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller.