Cellist Matt Haimovitz tours
extensively around the world. He has appeared with today's greatest orchestras,
conductors, and chamber musicians. He has performed and recorded with
such artists as James Levine, John McLaughlin, Daniel Barenboim, Rob Wasserman,
Isaac Stern, and James Taylor. He has been honored with the Avery Fisher Career
Grant (1986), the prestigious Premio Internazionale "Academia Musicale
Chigiana" (1999), and in 2004 was awarded the Trailblazer Award by the
American Music Center for his contribution to American music.
Haimovitz made headlines with his path-breaking interpretations of Bach's 6
Suites for Cello Solo and his unprecedented Bach "Listening-Room"
Tour. He was the first classical artist to play at New York's infamous CBGB, in
a performance that was featured on ABC's "Nightline UpClose."
Commencing his 50-state "Anthem" Tour, in celebration of living
American composers, on September 11, 2003, Haimovitz has been "busily
reinventing the classical recital for the new millennium." (San Francisco
Chronicle) The performances received universal praise, and the Anthem album
appeared on numerous top 10 lists, including the Best Classical Album of 2003
on Amazon.com. Prior to establishing Oxingale Records with composer Luna Pearl
Woolf, Haimovitz's ten-year exclusive relationship with the Deutsche Grammophon
label resulted in six acclaimed recordings.
In 1984, Haimovitz made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta performing Saint-Saënsıs Cello Concerto No. 1 in a televised appearance. Since then he has performed with such conductors as 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 symphony orchestras and philharmonic organizations, including those of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, as well as 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.
In addition to his extensive
concerto appearances, Haimovitz collaborates with distinguished musicians of
several generations. A notable performance of Schubertıs two-cello quintet at
Carnegie Hall was a turning point for Haimovitz who, at age 13, replaced his
teacher Leonard Rose at short notice, joining Isaac Stern, Mstislav
Rostropovich, Shlomo Mintz, and Pinchas Zukerman. This performance was followed
by a personal invitation from Mr. Stern to join him, Cho-Liang Lin, Jaime
Laredo, Michael Tree and Yo-Yo Ma in both Brahms Sextets at Tanglewood and
Carnegie Hall. Matt Haimovitz has gone on to perform at the worldıs most
celebrated chamber music festivals including those of Marlboro, Aspen, Lucerne
and Schleswig-Holstein. Together with Mr. Mintz and pianist Itamar Golan, he
has explored the complete cycle of Beethoven piano trios, as well as an
all-Shostakovich program of piano trios and other chamber works.
Alongside his performing and recording activities, Matt Haimovitz is currently Professor of Cello at McGill University in Montréal. Haimovitz plays a 1710 Matteo Gofriller cello.