“Haimovitz approached the piece with a blend of ferocity and tenderness that went to the core of the music.”

— Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Live

“Haimovitz plays a cello made by the famous Venetian craftsman Matteo Goffriller in the eighteenth century.”

— Paul Gleason, Harvard Magazine

“Mr. Haimovitz and Geoffrey Burleson, the pianist, demonstrated abundant skill and style. Despite the usual clinking of glasses and minor chatter, the audience could hardly have been more attentive and respectful...Here, performing in an idiom intended for loudspeakers, Mr. Haimovitz and DJ Olive sounded like equal partners.”

— Steve Smith, The New York Times

“For maverick cellist Matt Haimovitz, pairing up with a DJ is no stranger than with a piano”

— RUPERT BOTTENBERG, Montreal Mirror

“Wielding glorious tone and achieving impeccable intonation throughout the compass of his 1710 Gofriller cello's neck, Haimovitz led a journey through Elgar's (and certainly his own) musical soul, imbuing each expressive phrase with liberal quantities of joy, sorrow and frustration, outbursts of anger and ebullience.”

— CLIFTON J. NOBLE Jr., The Republican

“The big name who appeared last Wednesday in an intimate setting was cellist Matt Haimovitz, whose discography includes three listings in the 2008 Gramophone Classical Music Guide. Joining him onstage was pianist Geoff Burleson, who played far from a subsidiary role.

Now, for music lovers with an adventurous bent, the duo offered quite a feast, beginning with Beethoven's Cello Sonata #2 in D. That wasn't even the headliner in a concert titled "Happy 100th Birthday, Elliott Carter." Naw, Ludwig was merely a warm-up act for Carter's Sonata for Cello and Piano, which clocks in more than four minutes longer in the recorded versions I own.

The duo had more accessible music on their stands after intermission, although Haimovitz had to exhibit expertise in masonry to spread the full score of David Sanford's 22 Part 1 for Cello and Piano in front of him. We floated back towards the mainstream in the final piece of the evening, Samuel Barber's C minor Cello Sonata.

Both Burleson and Haimovitz proved to be as personable in introducing the music as they were virtuosic in playing it. With a Brahms encore tacked on, the concert was at least as long as those presented by Charlotte Symphony.

So is it worthwhile getting onto I-85 for”

— Perry Tannenbaum, Creative Loafing

“"Après Moi, Le Déluge" ... a haunting combination of classical, blues and gospel for choir and cello.”

— WILLIAM WEIR, The Courant

“Of all these young players, Haimovitz is the most radical: an expressive maximalist, he calls forth a dazzling spectrum of sounds from the depths of his instrument. Those who like the solo disk can move on to "Vinyl Cello" (also on Oxingale), an album that features such enticements as a "cello band" transcription of Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" and a powerfully funk-driven "Scherzo Grosso" by the young African-American composer David Sanford.”

— Russell Platt, The New Yorker

“Thursday night was the third and penultimate night of programming at
MusiMars, McGill University's festival of contemporary music. My brief
glimpse at the festival allowed me the chance to see two deeply satisfying
pieces. First a cello solo by Quebecer Gilles Tremblay, performed by Matt
Haimovitz. Haimovitz proved himself to be a world-class performer who we
should be glad to have in the city. His emotive and wrenching performance
masterfully brought the emotional complexity of the piece to the fore.”

— Adam Kinner, Montreal Gazette

“That help has to be both from volunteers and through financial assistance, she added. She set up a nonprofit ("Puccini Productions") this week and donations can be made through Bank of Albuquerque or at the concert by cellist Matt Haimovitz on March 9, which has been rescheduled into the KiMo Theater.

Haimovitz is foregoing his fees and donating the concert's proceeds to the nonprofit. The world renowned musician played Puccini's when he toured, playing the Bach Cello Suites. He said in a prepared statement that Puccini's was close to his heart.”

— Megan Kamerick, New Mexico Business Weekly

“Cellist Matt Haimovitz plays music from "Max's Moon," written by his wife, composer Luna Pearl Woolf. (MPR Photo/Karl Gehrke)”

— Steve Staruch, Minnesota Public Radio

“The world is generously supplied with prodigious cellists. But ask which of them is as comfortable with Jimi Hendrix as with J.S. Bach, and you're likely to hear just one name: Matt Haimovitz.”

— LARRY FUCHSBERG, Star Tribune

“Moravec's score makes great demands, yet Haimovitz's magnificent performance was a tour de force, and this delightful work is a fine addition to the solo cello repertoire.”

— LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON, Miami Herald

“The cellist's name is Matt Haimovitz, and he's known among musicians as a maverick. When he's not performing with top orchestras in New York, Vienna or Tokyo, he plays J.S. Bach, Ned Rorem and Jimi Hendrix in honky-tonks, bars and coffeehouses.

Haimovitz is reinventing the classical recital to get closer to the music, closer to listeners, he says. While he's at it, the Montreal cellist also is reinventing himself, moving more-or-less fluidly between two traditionally distinct domains: the rarified musical world he inhabited in the 1980s as a teen prodigy playing the same concertos over and over again, and the gritty clubs and punk hangouts where a full house might number 50 people.”

— DAVID STABLER, The Oregonian

“For me, the flooding of New Orleans, with its dramatic and
deadly split along the lines of class and race, awakened an old
antipathytoward the Noah story, with multitudes drowned
and a moralizing focus on the select few who were saved.”

— Eleanor Wilner, poetry northwest, spring / summer 2007

“But why, even with a piece like Adams, does the protocol never change? When Bach performed with his friends in coffee houses, were people silent? I doubt it. A handful of classical performers are trying to break away from the priestly rituals surrounding the music: Cellist Matt Haimovitz comes to mind. He makes a point of performing in pizza joints, night clubs, coffee houses, anything to find a new audience that might enjoy, say, Bachs cello suites if listeners werent chastised for moving their heads. But there arent many like him.”

— Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News

“Second on the program, Samuel Barber's "Concert for Cello in C Minor, Op. 17," gave metro-area audiences a perfect occasion to hear viva voce the superb achievements of cello soloist Matt Haimovitz. This artist's reach up and down his instrument astounds the eye as much as his range of timbres does the ear. Among living cellists, one can find in him a supreme lyricist of the cello's "tenor" vocality.”

— HARVEY HESS, The WCF Courier

“When you hear that cellist Matt Haimovitz is coming to town, you automatically wonder what sort of unpredictable, challenging project he's working on.”

— David Weininger, Boston Globe

“Admittedly not a connoisseur of the classical genre, this reviewer was pleasantly surprised with the amount of electricity and excitement generated by a single musician and his 18th century Venetian cello.”

— Joe Milliken, Message for the Week

“The most noteworthy was David Sanford's "Scherzo Grosso," a thrilling and cacophonous work for cello and orchestra. Written for the daring cellist Matt Haimovitz, it's easy to see why the work demanded amplification. Haimovitz's strikingly bold but nuanced cello playing held its own in unison passages with the saxophones and struck a curious counterpoint to the jazzy thread offered by the percussion section in the fourth movement. The saturnalia of sound begged a larger hall, but Nagano kept the orchestra's power focused and harnessed.”

— Edward Ortiz, Sacramento Bee

“When the volume subsided, as it did in the bluesy second movement, some truly beautiful music was revealed.”

— William Quillen, Classical Voice of San Francisco

“It's possible to applaud Haimovitz's energy and adventurous spirit...Haimovitz attacked the amplified solo part with plenty of eloquence and flair...
”

— Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

“"I have to say it is keeping music really fresh for me," he says. "When I first had conversations with establishment musicians about going to alternative places, they thought I had gone off the deep end. But I think now they realize it is a way to build audiences. They see it as outreach -- I see it as a way of life."”

— Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun

“I feel really strongly that this music is very powerful and one of the most constructive elements of our society and culture. We need it to nourish and inspire our spirits, especially at times when so much is going wrong in the world and when the cycles of history, incredulously, you see repeating themselves in front of us.

If we could replace some of the violence and horror of what we see around us with music, I think we'd be in a much better place.”

— Bill D'Agostino, Frederick News Post

“his program flaunts both core classical tradition and his modernizing missionary zeal”

— Lee Gardner, Baltimore City Paper

“"I take inspiration from all kinds of places," he said. "My greatest inspiration comes from composers. I can't imagine a world without Bach or Beethoven."”

— Elizabeth Kramer, Herald-Mail

“Roughly two hours after the program began, and about when most recitals would be over, Haimovitz confessed he was tired. He explained that he had also been rehearsing James Yannatos's Cello Concerto. (He plays the work's premiere tonight with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.) So he did what just about no cellist would do in this situation: He plunged into Gyorgy Ligeti's fiendishly difficult solo cello sonata. It was an electrifying performance that showed deep fluency in this challenging musical language, surely informed by his experience of studying the work directly with Ligeti.”

— Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe

“[Aprs Moi, le Dluge] ...the music is haunting...heart-ripping but entrancingly beautiful scoring.”

— New Music Box

“Cello Unchained was music selected by students, for students. It was one of four Unconventional Concerts this season planned entirely by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centers Student Advisory Committee, a group of high school students who meet once a week to plan, program and arrange concerts, then market them to their peers. To judge from the turnout, some adult presenters need to get themselves a piece of this student-marketing campaign.”

— Anne Midgette, New York Times

“Un musicien atypique qui ouvre la voie.”

— Rjean Beaucage, Voir Magazine

“La pice titre est un concerto pour violoncelle et chur, combinaison pour le moins inusite, mais qui, sous la plume de Luna Pearl Wolf, devient parfaitement naturelle.”

— Rjean Beaucage, La Scena

“Yet this wasn't just a showcase for a stellar cellist. Haimovitz suspended the sustained, wistful gestures of the slow movement with utmost sensitivity, and he interacted with the CityMusic players as if they were on an entrancing chamber-music holiday.”

— Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Matt Haimovitz is the most acclaimed cellist to ever perform a solo gig at CBGB's, the now sadly defunct New York club that in the 1970s gave rise to The Ramones, Talking Heads and other now-legendary acts. I know, I know: He's also the only cellist to perform at CBGB's, but that's the point.”

— George Varga, San Diego Union Tribune

“But the straight part of the program was too riveting to merit any label other than good music. Mr. Haimovitz brought in two colleagues from McGill University in Montreal, where he teaches Jonathan Crow, a violinist, and Douglas McNabney, a violist to join him in the Divertimento in E flat (K. 563), a drop-dead gorgeous piece (which this trio recorded last year).

They played it ravishingly. Mr. Haimovitz makes a huge, dark sound, and Mr. Crow has one of those sweet, singing violin tones that seduces the ear. The piece is Mozarts longest instrumental work, but it didnt seem long enough.”

— Anne Midgette, New York Times

“To hear artists of Hahn and Haimovitz's rank in such intimate venues is a privilege.”

— R.M. CAMPBELL, Seattle Post Intelligencer

“to clue you in as to what you can expect -- a turntablist, for less traditional explorations of Mozartian fare.”

— Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg

“[Aprs Moi, le Dluge,] includes compelling text by MacArthur-winning poet Eleanor Wilner. Sorrowful, deeply political, and aching with universal regret, Woolfs work is as emotional as it is topical. The piece draws heavily upon jazz, gospel and blues and uses the solo cello to express what words cannot. Haimovitz will bring the work to New York City in March.”

— Tiffany Martini, Strings Magazine

“At downtown Fargos Green Market on Wednesday night, renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz prepared to tackle a Jimi Hendrix piece, a Woodstock version of the Star-Spangled Banner protesting the Vietnam War.

Turn this up, he urged the sound technician. They need to hear this in Washington.”

— Mila Koumpilova, The Forum

“Lets rewind. Its November 2000 and, after years of recitals and guest appearances with orchestras, Matt Haimovitz is promoting his new recording of the Bach Cello Suites with a performance at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts. Generally more of a jazz, rock, and folk venue, the space perfectly suited the cellists desire to present the music on his own terms. So he picked up the phone and convinced the halls concert promoter that people would show up to hear classical music. And show up they did, enthusiastically.”

— Molly Sheridan, Symphony

“Fargo-Moorhead Symphony director Bernard Rubenstein listened to cellist Matt Haimovitzs intense Bach performance in a Santa Fe, N.M., club and teared up. People say I cry at the drop of a hat, says Rubenstein. But I dont usually cry at music.”

— Mila Koumpilova, The Forum Fargo ND

“Classical music needs more musicians like Matt Haimovitz.”

— Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press

“Cellist Matt Haimovitz at the Tractor Tavern in January and violinist Gidon Kremer at Benaroya last month. They're two string players not content with the usual solo career path, hopping from one orchestra to the next, playing the same five concertos. It's not just that they have a taste for adventurous contemporary works; they've been rethinking the conventions of the recital format entirely.”

— Gavin Borchert, Seattle Weekly

“Matt Haimovitz, Seligman Performing Arts Center, February (Chamber Music Society of Detroit): A compelling single-evening marathon performance of Bach's six solo cello suites played with relaxed intensity and improvisatory flair by one of the most progressive young musicians around.”

— Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press

“What would h appen if you simply brought the music to the places where these listeners were already comfortable and familiar? The cellist Matt Haimovitz was the first player I know of to put this question to a sustained and rigorous test. In the age-old folk-tradition, he packed up his cello and drove around the country playing Bach Suites as well as bracing contemporary music in cafes, bars , and clubs.

I once heard him play in a country music venue in Nashville and in a pizza parlor in Jackson, Miss. It was surreal to watch baseball-capped frat boys, innocently out for a slice of pizza, wander into a passionate performance of microtonal music. But by and large, audiences seemed to love it and responded viscerally to such direct contact with a top-flight performer. It was not about finding a new performance gimmick, but about stripping away the packaging to unleash the music's natural expressive power.”

— Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe

“Woolf on Haimovitzs style as a cellist:Brave. He never shies away from the greatest beauty or the rawest angertheres nowhere hes unwilling to go when trying to find what the composer was putting into the music.
Haimovitz on Woolfs latest work: Aprs Moi, le Dluge, Odas de Todo el Mundo, and I Am a Fish pass my own personal litmus test of great music: Once you have heard it, you cannot imagine the world without it; they sound new and inevitable at once.”

— Kirsten Jirch, 02138

“Even the featured cellist, Matt Haimovitz, is not begging for your attention; he is delivering music. He plays this most sexual instrument with a sincerity popular culture is starving forit is a beautiful and moving event:”

— Stacy Willis, Las Vegas Weekly

“Guest artist Matt Haimovitz brought magnetism to his performance of Barber's "Cello Concerto." Haimovitz has the talent to keep tension and passion resounding in any hall of any size. Emotional directness is Haimovitz's signature, and this selection gave him the venue to surpass all expectations.

Samuel Barber's masterfully crafted composition allowed Haimovitz to display his virtuosity. He delighted the audience with notes that were at once lyrical, rhythmically complex and harmonically rich.”

— Barbara Hall, Las Vegas Review-Journal

“But the conductor remained mum before Samuel Barber's Cello Concerto.

He let a twitch in the strings and chatter in the woodwinds launch the orchestra into its call and response with guest soloist Matt Haimovitz.

It's a demanding piece, mixing angular urban phrases with poetic passages. It sounds at times as if George Gershwin were searching for Aaron Copland but stopped instead to chat with Thelonious Monk.

Haimovitz soared up and down the fingerboard. He echoed the lyric lines of oboist Stephen Caplan in the evening's most beautiful moments.”

— Mark Whittington, The Las Vegas Sun

“The concerto will feature guest cellist Matt Haimovitz, described by Itkin as "a stunning, young player."”

— MADELON HYNES, Las Vegas Review Journal

“But if anyone can rock out on a cello, the 35-year-old Haimovitz is the one to do it. He's like a modern-day Bartok (a composer Haimovitz reveres). Like Bartok, he explores multifarious worldly sounds that have fallen into classical compositions. And his aim is to bring classical music to the masses, particularly younger audiences who might be more likely to hear Haimovitz perform at a roadside bar or uptown coffee house than a concert hall.”

— Kristen Peterson, The Las Vegas Sun

“This week's performances will raise money for the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund, which helps musicians still struggling to resume their lives in America's jazz and blues capital.

"I hope that they take some comfort and to know that even though we're not from New Orleans and we haven't suffered what they suffered, we are with them," Haimovitz said, "that their tradition is important to us, that there are people thinking about how we can prevent something like this down the road and learn from this experience and somehow take some hope from all this."”

— MARTIN STEINBERG, ASSOCIATED PRESS

“Before the insistent applause of the public Matt Haimovitz it offered a most personal version of the hymn of the U.S.A., with plagued variations of overtones and glisandos, inspired by the one of Jimmy Hendrix.”

— EMILIO GONZLEZ BARROSO/BADAJOZ, Hoy

“Meanwhile, Haimovitz made the rough places plain in this difficult concerto. But he offered much more than technique. His ardent playing, his throaty tone (turning tremulous and far-off in a first-movement episode), his ability to dance as much as to sing, were all qualities that lifted this performance to glowing heights and the audience to its feet.”

— SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT, The Ann Arbor News

“"Après Moi, le Déluge" – to an eloquent text by the poet Eleanor Wilner, which fittingly evokes Noah and the Flood, and the bluesman Muddy Waters – is intriguingly scored for a cappella choir and cello. The stellar soloist on this premiere recording is Ms. Woolf's husband, the cellist Matt Haimovitz, a champion of new music, unusual performance locales and eclectic instrumental combinations.”

— ALLAN KOZINN and VIVIEN SCHWEITZER

“Haimovitz's new album, "Goulash!" is a fabulous mix of both worlds - it's as cosmopolitan as the cellist himself and puts his instrument in a new light.”

— Edward Reichel, Deseret Morning News

“Buckfield residents next heard the world premiere (almost) of a work commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec, setting five aphorisms by Mark Twain. "Almost" because Haimovitz had played it for the first time the day before at Colby College.
The new piece exploits the possibilities of the cello to the greatest possible extent, almost to the verge of trickery, but always at the service of Twain's peculiar brand of thought.”

— CHRISTOPHER HYDE, Portland Press Herald

“Haimovitz delights in the cello even though most audiences don't initially think of it as a solo instrument. "In range and timbre I think it's the closest thing we have to the human voice," he says.”

— HERMAN GOODDEN, London Free Press

“As early as 13, Haimovitz was described by his teacher, Leonard Rose of the Julliard School, as 'probably the greatest talent I have ever taught.'”

— James Mason
, Scene Magazine

“He will also play solo cello pieces from three Pulitzer-winning composers.
”

— Lucky Clark, The Sun Jourmal

“Matt Haimovitz, one of his generation's great classical cellists, has played the grand halls, but now he prefers to play in night clubs, where you're apt to hear him play Bach and some Hendrix. He says, 'Classical music can stand up to any music being made today and still persevere. It should be heard by as many people as possible.'”

— Graham Rockingham, The Hamilton Spectator

“Subscribed large scenes, Matt Haimovitz also likes to be plunged in the intimate atmosphere of the clubs or the coffees, even that more animated of the subway stations or the public markets, unexpected places where it always finds ears attentive.”

— Richard Boisvert, Le Soleil, Quebec

“So hes thrilled that Matt Haimovitz, considered one of the best young cellists in the world and known for his dedication to bringing classical music to unconventional venues, has joined the KlezKanada faculty.”

— JANICE ARNOLD, Canadian Jewish News

“Other 10th anniversary activities include visits from Grawemeyer, award-winning composer George Tsontakis and cellist Matt Haimovitz, recipient of the Avery Fisher Grant and nationally renowned soloist.
”

— BARBARA ROSE SHULER, Monterey Herald

“Yet our universities continue to turn out new composers and interpreters. Young artists like violin player Dr. Draw, cellist Matt Haimovitz and Texas-based string ensemble Neo Camerata attract new audiences.”

— JOHN TERAUDS, Toronto Star

“the disc features Mozart's rarely heard transcriptions of Bach Preludes and Fugues in spine-tingling performances by violinist Jonathan Crow, violist Douglas McNabney and cellist Matt Haimovitz.”

— ZACHARY LEWIS, St. Petersburg Times

“Award-winning composer George Tsontakis and nationally renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz are among the featured guest artists this year.”

— Barbara Rose Shuler, Monterey Herald

“The season finale features cellist Matt Haimovitz in works by David Sanford and Tod Machover”

— GEORGIA ROWE, Contra Costa Times

“Glass will receive the Victor Herbert Award for his "leadership, generous spirit, and musical citizenship." The Concert Music Honorees are DePreist, for his "career-long advocacy for American composers"; Haimovitz, for "taking his brilliant and passionate performances to audiences wherever they assemble"; and Alarm Will Sound, for its "virtuosity, passion, and commitment" in performing 21st-century music.
”

— Ben Mattison, Playbill Arts

“Award-winning cellist Matt Haimovitz balances the higher strings with an exceedingly warm, almost self-effacing touch that gently reaches into the heart of Mozart's mature masterpiece”

— Jason Victor Serinus, Bay Area Reporter

“If you choose to be clever and shout play some Skynard! during a recital by classical cellist Matt Haimovitz, dont be surprised if he takes you up on the offer.”

— joe eskenazi, The Jewish News Weekly

“Haimovitz believes that good music naturally transcends the confines of venue, genre and definition. "To me, once you hear a good piece of music, you can't live without it. When that happens, you can never turn back."
”

— Neale McDevitt, The McGill Reporter

“This excellent performance featured Matt Haimovitz,a young cellist who was new to me but not unfamiliar to New Yorkers of a certain musical penchant.”

— FRED KIRSHNIT, NY Sun

“Haimovitz, who is perhaps best known for his series of solo tours in clubs and other non-traditional settings, commissioned Aprs Moi, le Dluge as part of a series called "Buck the Concerto." Each work in the series is initially set for cello and an unconventional ensemble, such as jazz big band, electronic orchestra, or choir; later, it is arranged for symphony orchestra.”

— Ben Mattison, Playbill Arts

“"I really think this is a fabulous work," says Taylor, who is also the assistant conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. "I'm suggesting she put it up for a Pulitzer Prize. It has everything you'd want in a piece. It has complex styles -- some ugly truths and some real beauty and some down-home New Orleans-type music. It has a multiplicity of styles, so it's difficult but very approachable."
”

— Jacob Stockinger, The Capital Times, Madison Wisconsin

“The first major work of classical music to commemorate the flooding of New Orleans”

— Arts Journal, Arts Journal

“I once heard him play in a grungy pizza parlor in Jackson, Miss., and watched as he entranced unsuspecting frat boys with an eerie microtonal work for solo cello.”

— JEREMY EICHLER, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“For the finale, the players set their sights farther east - and abandoned their classical orientation - by offering Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir."With its striking syncopated pattern of four long notes and two short ones, which recurs like a rondo theme, "Kashmir" made for a bracing conclusion.”

— GEORGE LOOMIS, NY SUN

“On the other hand, hes earned a rep as a maverick. He concluded a decade with the juggernaut classical imprint Deutsche Grammophon by starting his own Oxingale labelhow indie rock is that?”

— RUPERT BOTTENBERG, The Montral Mirror

“Haimovitz's latest venture is the ambitious "Bartk infused stew" that is Goulash, a series of three triple concerts, based on the record of the same name, featuring the work of Bartk, Gyorgy Ligeti, Romania's Adrian Pop, Osvaldo Golijov and Led Zeppelin.”

— Steve Baylin, Ottawa Xpress

“Perhaps there was something Sisyphean about the evening, but to hear Bach describe the wonders of the universe from six perspectives was akin to looking at six Monet haystacks or six Van Gogh self-portraits. The subject may be the same but the variety of expression is astounding.”

— MARK STRYKER, Detroit Free Press

“Tired of waiting for audiences his age to find him in the concert hall, he began to take the music directly to them in clubs and bars, traveling the country like Jack Kerouac with a cello. It was a revelation
”

— MARK STRYKER, Detroit Free Press Inc.

“The second half opened with Zoltan Kodaly's monumental Sonata for Cello Solo. Haimovitz captured its somber drama without histrionics. Displaying his exhilarating mastery, he ranged from barely audible notes to startlingly full chordal textures, from singing, vibrato-laden lines to gutsy, rasping stabs. He ended to thunderous applause.”

— By Kevin Lowenthal, Boston Globe

“This long (47 minute) work is a long way from the exuberant Salzburg divertimentos of a previous decade. An atmosphere of slow ritual pervades, as would suit a gathering of the liberal-minded literati of Vienna in 1788.”

— David Perkins, Correspondent, The News Observer

“''Goulash" offers a little bit of everything, from Ligeti to Led Zeppelin, and the recording features such collaborators as guitar great John McLaughlin, DJ Olive and a group of Haimovitz's cello proteges, UCCELLO.”

— Keith Powers, Boston Herald

“Haimovitz says that hes never forsaken the concert hall, but an ideal week is playing a concerto one night and then going into a club the next. These two worlds are reconciled. He is working to connect Carnegie and the coffeehouse. in effect, to create a hybrid musical experience, both democratic and rooted in classical tradition.
”

— ANNA F. BONNELL-FREIDIN, The Crimson

“Here, violinist Jonathan Crow, violist Douglas McNabney, and cellist Matt Haimovitz offer an airy reading that highlights the divertimento ideal of providing pleasant aural backdrop to dining and conversation.”

— David Prince, Santa Fe New Mexican Paper

“Cellist Matt Haimovitz, who has released a new recording of rarely heard Mozart chamber music, says the Kraft painting is the image of Mozart he holds in his head.

"There's a youthful sparkle in his eye in that portrait, like the 'Amadeus' character we all know," Haimovitz says. "But there's also this piercing intelligence, this dignity. He has a gravitas there that just seems to go with the mature operas and late chamber music, his greatest work."”

— Bradley Bambarger, The Star Ledger

“Welcome to the wild, warm, and highly musical world of cellist Matt Haimovitz, who has made it his business to bring serious music down to the nightclub. Haimovitz has a sterling classical rsum, and teaches at McGill University (his cello students joined him in his UCCELLO ensemble). But he has willfully avoided the pristineand sometimes prissyatmosphere of chamber music halls in favor of club life, and bully for him.”

— Josef Woodard, The Santa Barbara Independent

“Goulash! gets off to a rousing start as the Uccello cello ensemble, composed of Haimovitz and his students, segues from an extended version of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" to Bartok's delightful six Romanian Folk Dances.”

— Jason Victor Serinus, Bay Area Reporter

“Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," the fourth cellist slapping and tapping his instrument all over. Haimovitz followed this with his own solo deconstruction of Hendrix's Woodstock rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and in his hands it's protest music maybe even angrier than the original.
”

— Gavin Borchert, Seattle Weekly

“This is the most essential Mozart anniversary disc so far.”

— Bradley Bambarger, The Star Ledger

“The cellist Matt Haimovitz has headed a chamber music recording on the Oxingale label called Mozart the Mason. Haimowitz's recording focuses on music related to Mozart's interest in Freemasonry (a guiding force behind The Magic Flute.)”

— Elaine Guregian, Akron Beacon Journal

“Haimovitz is a wonderful soloist, as South Bay fans know from his shows at the Espresso Garden the last couple of years. As one Bachophile said, "Led Zeppelin never sounded so good."”

— Mark Whittington, San Jose, The Mercury News

“Haimovitz, who continues to take classical music out of concert halls and into coffeehouses and clubs (and yes, even a pizza place), performs Saturday in a Seattle tavern.”

— Sharon Wootton, The Herald - Everett, Wash

“Mostly, as pop elements infiltrate the new music scene - including Philip Glass' riff-like compositional machinery - Haimovitz moves in the opposite direction, bringing high-minded, challenging music to clubland.”

— By Josef Woodard
Special to The Times, The LA Times

“When Haimovitz draws the bow across the strings of his 18th-century Venetian cello at the Knitting Factory on Tuesday, the music of Bela Bartok won't be the only classic you'll hear.
”

— By Sandra Barrera, Staff Writer, LA Daily News

“Haimovitz, who gave his first Carnegie Hall performance at age 13, appeared utterly at ease with the thorny technical demands of the Shostakovich, playing with a penetrating sound that projected consistently above the orchestra.”

— STEPHEN THOMAS, Modesto Bee

“He has no regrets about the move and the small-venue tours, though they have come with a cost.

"Have I lost a lot of money doing this?" he said. "Probably. On the other hand, if I really was into that, I probably should have gone into law school at Harvard instead of doing music."
”

— LISA MILLEGAN, The Modesto Bee

“Cellist Matt Haimovitz and UCCELLO will perform Friday, Feb. 3, at 8 p.m. at Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, 45 Quincy St.
”

— Staff Witer, Cambridge Chronicle