Matt Haimovitz
Cellist Matt Haimovitz has evolved from a prodigy to one of the most dynamic cellists on the classical music scene. He has performed the standard repertoire but has also ventured into the non-standard while taking his performances beyond the concert hall to audiences in night clubs and restaurants. Haimovitz was born in Bat Yam, Israel, on December 3, 1970. His family moved to California when he was five, and he took up the cello at age seven, studying with Irene Sharp and then Gabor Rejto. At 12, Haimovitz performed at a music camp where Itzhak Perlman was a member of the audience. Perlman was so impressed he introduced Haimovitz to cellist Leonard Rose. Rose was amazed by the young artist's ability and helped foster his education. Haimovitz's family moved to New York so he could study with Rose at the Juilliard School. He played his first concert at Carnegie Hall in 1984, at the age of 13, when he substituted for an ailing Rose in a performance with Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, and Shlomo Mintz. He accepted his first major honor, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, in 1986. In 1987, Haimovitz made his debut recording for Deutsche Grammophon, and his career trajectory followed the usual course one would expect for a classical artist, playing the concert hall circuit and teaching. Around 2000, Haimovitz faced up to the growing realization that the audiences he was playing for did not seem to bring around very many of the people his age. He diagnosed this condition to concert halls themselves and resolved to meet the desired audience where they felt comfortable, in the ordinary coffeehouses, bars, and night clubs where young people hang out. This loosening of the collar, as it applies to one's place of venue, also opened up his music, and in 2003, Haimovitz launched his "Anthem" tour, playing the works of living American composers in 50 different states. His recordings, mostly on Oxingale (founded in 2000 by Haimovitz and his wife, Luna Pearl Woolf), such as Lemons Descending and Anthem, also serve to expose young listeners to music from their own time. The response to Haimovitz's about-face in terms of performance spaces and repertoire may be mixed coming from critics, but audiences are pleased and are attending, which is Haimovitz's goal. His efforts in bringing classical music to people who would normally be scared off by the formality of it all was recognized by the American Music Center, which presented him its Trailblazer Award in 2005. In 2007, Haimovitz released the album Vinyl Cello, and a year later, was nominated for a Juno Award. In 2012, he performed the premiere of Glass' Cello Concerto No. 2 "Naqoyqatsi" and released Shuffle.Play.Listen with Christopher O'Riley. Haimovitz was heard on the PentaTone Classics album Luna Pearl Woolf: Fire and Flood in 2020. From 1999-2004, Haimovitz taught at the University of Massachusetts, and since 2004, he has taught at McGill University in Montreal.© Uncle Dave Lewis & Keith Finke /TiVo Read more
Cellist Matt Haimovitz has evolved from a prodigy to one of the most dynamic cellists on the classical music scene. He has performed the standard repertoire but has also ventured into the non-standard while taking his performances beyond the concert hall to audiences in night clubs and restaurants.
Haimovitz was born in Bat Yam, Israel, on December 3, 1970. His family moved to California when he was five, and he took up the cello at age seven, studying with Irene Sharp and then Gabor Rejto. At 12, Haimovitz performed at a music camp where Itzhak Perlman was a member of the audience. Perlman was so impressed he introduced Haimovitz to cellist Leonard Rose. Rose was amazed by the young artist's ability and helped foster his education. Haimovitz's family moved to New York so he could study with Rose at the Juilliard School. He played his first concert at Carnegie Hall in 1984, at the age of 13, when he substituted for an ailing Rose in a performance with Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, and Shlomo Mintz. He accepted his first major honor, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, in 1986. In 1987, Haimovitz made his debut recording for Deutsche Grammophon, and his career trajectory followed the usual course one would expect for a classical artist, playing the concert hall circuit and teaching.
Around 2000, Haimovitz faced up to the growing realization that the audiences he was playing for did not seem to bring around very many of the people his age. He diagnosed this condition to concert halls themselves and resolved to meet the desired audience where they felt comfortable, in the ordinary coffeehouses, bars, and night clubs where young people hang out. This loosening of the collar, as it applies to one's place of venue, also opened up his music, and in 2003, Haimovitz launched his "Anthem" tour, playing the works of living American composers in 50 different states. His recordings, mostly on Oxingale (founded in 2000 by Haimovitz and his wife, Luna Pearl Woolf), such as Lemons Descending and Anthem, also serve to expose young listeners to music from their own time. The response to Haimovitz's about-face in terms of performance spaces and repertoire may be mixed coming from critics, but audiences are pleased and are attending, which is Haimovitz's goal. His efforts in bringing classical music to people who would normally be scared off by the formality of it all was recognized by the American Music Center, which presented him its Trailblazer Award in 2005.
In 2007, Haimovitz released the album Vinyl Cello, and a year later, was nominated for a Juno Award. In 2012, he performed the premiere of Glass' Cello Concerto No. 2 "Naqoyqatsi" and released Shuffle.Play.Listen with Christopher O'Riley. Haimovitz was heard on the PentaTone Classics album Luna Pearl Woolf: Fire and Flood in 2020. From 1999-2004, Haimovitz taught at the University of Massachusetts, and since 2004, he has taught at McGill University in Montreal.
© Uncle Dave Lewis & Keith Finke /TiVo
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J.S. Bach: The Cello Suites According to Anna Magdalena
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 2 Oct 2015
5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata, String Quintet D. 956
Matt Haimovitz, Miro Quartet, Itamar Golan
Chamber Music - Released by PentaTone on 3 Jun 2016
5 de DiapasonFranz Schubert composed nothing for solo cello, but there is a way cellists can still program his music. Matt Haimovitz's 2016 release on PentaTone of ...
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Mon ami, mon amour
Chamber Music - Released by PentaTone on 6 Nov 2020
The vibrant musical palette of cellist Matt Haimovitz and the graceful insight of pianist Mari Kodama exquisitely meld in "MON AMI, Mon amour". Cello ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Overtures to Bach
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 26 Aug 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Primavera III: The Vessel
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 24 Jun 2022
"PRIMAVERA III the vessel" is the third of six albums in a momentous series encompassing 81 world premieres for solo cello. This digital album present ...
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Cello Jazz
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 8 May 2020
Matt Haimovitz’s multi-faceted cello knocks down musical boundaries while scaling emotions from darkness to joy in "Cello Jazz", a wide-ranging playli ...
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Primavera II: The Rabbits
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 4 Feb 2022
"Primavera II. The rabbits" is the second of six albums in a momentous series encompassing 81 world premieres for solo cello. This digital album prese ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Troika
Matt Haimovitz, Christopher O'Riley
Chamber Music - Released by PentaTone on 29 Sep 2017
It is not clear just what the "troika" of the title refers to, but one can imagine two possibilities: the album is taking up the title of the "Troika" ...
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Orbit: Music for Solo Cello
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 7 Aug 2015
Matt Haimovitz's Orbit is a compilation of tracks from his albums Anthem, Goulash!, After Reading Shakespeare, Figment, and Matteo. © TiVo ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven, Period.
Matt Haimovitz, Christopher O'Riley
Chamber Music - Released by PentaTone on 3 Feb 2015
Gramophone Editor's ChoiceCellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O'Riley released their first album together in 2011, an eclectic program of clever crossover arrangemen ...
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Meeting of the Spirits
Matt Haimovitz, Uccello, Dominic Painchaud, John McLaughlin, Matt Wilson, Jan Jarczyk
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 9 Nov 2010
After establishing an auspicious but fairly conventional career as a cello soloist, Matt Haimovitz began around 2000 to broaden the scope of his playi ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.s. Bach: Goldberg Variations
Matt Haimovitz, Jonathan Crow, Douglas McNabney
Classical - Released by Oxingale Records on 16 Sep 2008
The now infamous story of how J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations received their name -- that Bach was asked to write them as a sleep aide of sorts for Co ...
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Mozart: Divertimento & Preludes to Bach
Matt Haimovitz, Jonathan Crow, Douglas McNabney
Chamber Music - Released by PentaTone on 24 Jan 2006
This is a re-release of a recording from 2005: and even back then, Matt Haimovitz was enthusiastically exploring unusual repertoires, like these Prelu ...
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Shuffle. Play. Listen
Matt Haimovitz, Christopher O'Riley
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 27 Sep 2011
The boundaries between rock and classical are erased here not just by juxtaposition but by cognizance of interpenetration. © TiVo ...
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Primavera I: The Wind
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 11 Jun 2021
"PRIMAVERA I the wind" is the first collection in a momentous series encompassing 81 world premieres for solo cello. This digital album presents 14 ne ...
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Saint-Saens: Cello Concerto / Lalo: Cello Concerto / Bruch: Kol Nidrei
Matt Haimovitz, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), James Levine
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Præter rerum seriem, NJE 24.11 (Arr. M. Haimovitz for Cello Ensemble)
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 15 Apr 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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The Twentieth-Century Cello
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fire and Flood
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 24 Jan 2020
From a deeply stirring Mass to hauntingly re-imagined Leonard Cohen masterpieces, "Luna Pearl Woolf: Fire and Flood" encompasses 25 years of vocal wor ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo