Musicians

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. Through his visionary approach – bringing a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, championing new music and initiating groundbreaking collaborations, innovative recording projects for Oxingale Records, a tireless touring schedule as well as mentoring an award-winning studio of young cellists at McGill University's Schulich School of Music in Montreal – 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. Among other awards and acclaim, two recent Oxingale albums have been nominated for Juno Awards: After Reading Shakespeare and Mozart the Mason

Matt Haimovitz's 2009/10 season features Figment, a new album and listening room tour of (mostly) solo cello music, exploring the musical riches and diversity of his two home countries, the US and Canada, and AKOKA, a live recording reframing Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time with works by klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer and hip-hop artist Socalled. Both albums will be released by Oxingale Records in fall '09. A live recording of Schumann's Cello Concerto with Gregory Nowak and the Orchestre de Bretagne is scheduled for release in spring 2010 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, as well as McGill colleagues violinist Jonathan Crow and violist Douglas McNabney.

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.



Matt Haimovitz Discography:

Figment

Odd Couple

J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations

VinylCello – CD & limited edition 12" LP

After Reading Shakespeare

David Sanford & the Pittsburgh Collective: Live at the Knitting Factory

Aprés Moi, le Déluge

Mozart the Mason

Goullash!

Epilogue
Mirò Quartet, Matt Haimovitz, cello
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in F Minor, op. 80
Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D 956, op. post. 163
Released 2004
Oxingale Records OX2006

Please Welcome... Matt Haimovitz
Compilation of Oxingale releases in SACD Surround Sound format
Released 2004
Oxingale Records OX2005

Anthem
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Hendrix/Haimovitz: Anthem
Lou Harrison: Prelude
David Sanford: Seventh Avenue Kaddish
Osvaldo Golijov: Omaramor
Luna Pearl Woolf: Impromptu
Robert Stern: Recitative (Yom Teruah)
Steven Mackey: Rhondo Variations
Augusta Read Thomas: Bells Ring Summer
Tod Machover: With Dadaji in Paradise
Toby Twining: 9:11 Blues
Matt Haimovitz (arr.): Truth from Above
Released 2003
Oxingale Records OX2004

Hyperstring Trilogy
Matt Haimovitz, hypercello, Kim Kashkashian, hyperviola, Ani Kavafian, hyperviolin
Boston Modern Orchestra Project / Gil Rose
Machover: Begin Again Again...
Machover: Song of Penance
Machover: Forever and Ever
Released 2003
Oxingale Records OX2003

Haydn Mozart
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Orchestre de Bretagne / Stephan Sanderling
Haydn: Cello Concerto in C Major, Hob. VIIb. 1
Haydn: Cello Concerto in D Major, Hob. VIIb. 2
Mozart: Cello Concerto in D Major, K. 285 d arranged by George Szell
Released 2003
Transart Live TR121

The Rose Album
Matt Haimovitz, cello, Itamar Golan, piano
Chopin: Polonaise Brillante
Schubert: Sonata in A for Arpeggione & Piano, D. 821
Robert Stern: Hazkarah
Schumann: Fantasy Pieces, op. 73
Paganini: Variations on One String on a Theme by Rossini
Popper: Requiem for Three Cellos and Piano, op. 66
Released 2002
Oxingale Records OX2002

Lemons Descending
Eileen Clark, soprano and Matt Haimovitz, cello.
Hildegard von Bingen: Slice for Saint Ursula
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5
John Tavener: Akhmatova Songs
William Sydeman: Three Songs After Emily Dickinson
Luna Pearl Woolf: Epithalamion
John Tavener: The Child Lived
Clark/Haimovitz: Ode to the Lemon
Released 2001
Oxingale Records OX2001

J.S. Bach: 6 Suites for Cello Solo
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Suite I in G Major, BWV 1007
Suite II in D Minor, BWV 1008
Suite III in C Major, BWV 1009
Suite IV in E-flat Major, BWV 1010
Suite V in C Minor, BWV 1011
Suite VI in D Major, BWV 1012
3-CD Set
Released 2000
Oxingale Records OX 2000

UnderTree
Eileen Clark, soprano, Matt Haimovitz, 'cello
Luna Pearl Woolf:: The Orange and the UnderTree
Limited edition CD
Released 1999
Oxingale Records

Portes Ouvertes: The 20th Century Cello Volume 3
Matt Haimovitz, cello, Philippe Cassard, Piano
Reger: Suite for Solo Cello in a minor, op. 131c no. 3
Webern: Three Little Pieces for Cello and Piano
Dutilleux: 3 Strophes sur le nom de Sacher
Debussy: Sonata for Cello and Piano
Britten: Tema "Sacher" for Solo Cello, Sonata in c for cello and Piano, op. 65
Released 1999
Deutsche Grammophon 457 584-2

The 20th Century Cello Volume 2
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Britten: Second Suite for Cello, op. 80
Davidovsky: Synchronisms No. 3
Harbison: Suite for Solo Cello
Perle: Hebrew Melodies for Unaccompanied Cello
Sessions: Six Pieces for Violoncello
Released 1997
Deutsche Grammophon 453 417-2

The 20th Century Cello
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Kodaly: Sonata, op. 8 (1915)
Britten: Suite No. 3 for Solo Cello, op. 87
Berio: Les mots sont allés. . ."Recitativo" pour cello seul
Henze: Cappriccio per violoncello solo
Released 1995
Deutsche Grammophon 445 834-2

Trios with Rob Wasserman
Matt Haimovitz improvises with Joan Jeanrenaud and Rob Wasserman. Other featured artists include Brian and Carnie Wilson, Neil Young, Bob Weir, Bruse Hornsby, Branford Marsalis, Edie Brickell, Jerry Garcia, and Elvis Costello.
Released 1993
GRP Records MGD-4021

Suites and Sonatas for Solo Cello
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Britten: Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello, op. 72
Crumb: Sonata for Solo Cello
Ligeti: Sonata for Solo Cello
Reger: Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello, op. 131c
Released 1991
Deutsche Grammophon

Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Boccherini: Cello Concertos
Matt Haimovitz, cello
English Chamber Orchestra / Andrew Davis
C.P.E. Bach: Cello Concerto in a minor, Wq. 172
Boccherini: Cello Concerto in Bb major, G.482
Haydn: Cello Concerto in c major, Hob. VIIb: 1
Released 1990
Deutsche Grammophon

Saint-Saens, Lalo: Cello Concertos, Bruch Kol Nidrei
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / James Levine
Bruch: Kol Nidrei, op. 47
Lalo: Cello Concerto in d minor
Saint-Saens: Cello Concerto No. 1 in a minor, op. 33
Released 1989
Deutsche Grammophon 427 323-2