Cellist Matt Haimovitz has established himself as one of classical music's most adventurous artists, equally at ease playing the masterworks for his instrument in solo, chamber and concerto performances in leading concert halls as he is bringing classical music to new listeners in surprising new venues.
Haimovitz has been "busily reinventing the classical recital for the new millennium," commencing his 50-state "Anthem" tour on September 11, 2003 in celebration of living American composers. The performances have received universal praise, and the "Anthem" album has appeared on numerous top 10 lists, including the Best classical Album of 2003 on Amazon.com. In 2004, the American Music Center has awarded Haimovitz one of its highest distinctions, the Trailblazer Award, for his far-reaching contribution to American music. Prior to the "Anthem" tour, Haimovitz made headlines with his path-breaking performances of Bach's 6 Suites for Cello Solo. He struck a nerve in the music world with his innovative Bach "Listening-Room" Tour, taking Bach's beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and performing them in intimate clubs and coffeehouses across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., to great acclaim. These listening-room tours have been profiled on NPR's "All Things Considered" and 'Performance Today,' PRI's 'The World,' as well as in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Haimovitz was the first classical artist to play at New York's infamous CBGB club, in a performance that was filmed by ABC News for its half-hour feature, 'Nightline UpClose.'
Since his 1984 debut with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, Haimovitz has performed with such conductors as James Levine, Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, and David Zinman. He has appeared in North America with many of the great symphonies and philharmonics, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and internationally with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Radio Orchestras of Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig and Hanover, the Israel Philharmonic, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Beijing Opera Orchestra, and many others.
Recording is an integral part of Haimovitz's musical life. His Bach 6 Suites for Cello Solo on Oxingale Records was nominated for an INDIE AWARD by the AFIM and won Just Plain Folks Award for Best Classical Recording. It was chosen as a "Top Pick" by U.S. News & World Report and featured in Billboard, Gramophone, The New Criterion, and other publications. Also nominated for the INDIE AWARD, The Rose Album (Oxingale) features Haimovitz, pianist Itamar Golan and guests performing works by Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Paganini, and Robert Stern as well David Popper's Requiem for Three Cellos and Piano. In 2003, Oxingale Records, the label Haimovitz formed with composer Luna Pearl Woolf, signed an exclusive contract with Artemis Records to collaborate on future projects and past releases including Anthem, Hyperstring Trilogy and Lemons Descending. Prior to establishing Oxingale Records, Matt Haimovitz's ten-year exclusive relationship with the Deutsche Grammophon label (DGG) resulted in six acclaimed recordings. His 1989 debut recording of Saint-Sa ns, Bruch and Lalo with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was lauded by Gramophone Magazine as heralding "the arrival of a new star in the cello firmament."
Born in Israel, Haimovitz has been honored with the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1986) the Grand Prix du Disque (1991) and Diapason d'Or (1991), the Harvard's Louis Sudler Prize (1996) and is the first cellist to receive the prestigious Premio Internazionale "Accademia Musicale Chigiana" (1999). He has been featured in numerous publications, including Newsweek, The New Yorker, People, Connoisseur, Gramophone, Strings and Strad magazines and has been the subject of full-length televised features on CBS' "Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt" and Germany's ZDF, and has appeared on PBS' "Salute to the Arts", and "Nova".
Alongside his performing and recording activities, Matt Haimovitz is committed to teaching. He has been the head of the the cello program at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) for the last five years, and in September 2004 will assume the position of Professor of Cello at McGill University in Montreal. Haimovitz plays a 1710 Matteo Gofriller cello.
Matt Haimovitz Discography: Epilogue
Mir 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 all s. . ."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
