Matt Haimovitz

Matt Haimovitz (born December 3, 1970) is a cellist based in the United States and Canada. Born in Israel, he grew up in the US from the age of five. He mainly plays a cello made by Matteo Goffriller in 1710.

"Haimovitz" redirects here. For Israeli taekwondo martial artist, see Gili Haimovitz.
Matt Haimovitz
Matt Haimovitz photographed in Montréal, Quebec, Canada at the MBAM Bourgie Hall., 2017
EducationJuilliard School, Harvard University
OccupationCellist
Years active1984 - present
EmployerMcGill University Schulich School of Music
Spouse(s)Luna Pearl Woolf
Websitehttp://www.oxingalerecords.com

Family, musical education and early career

Matt Haimovitz was born in the Israeli town of Bat Yam as son of Meir and Marlena Haimovitz, a Jewish couple who moved to Israel from Romania.[1] When he was 5 years old, the family settled in Palo Alto, California.

Haimovitz began to study the cello at the age of seven with Irene Sharp in California. At the age of nine, he switched teachers to Gábor Reitő. When Haimovitz was twelve years old, Itzhak Perlman, who was impressed by his performances at a music camp in Santa Barbara, introduced him to Leonard Rose. In order for him to study with Rose at the Juilliard School, his family moved to New York in 1983. Haimovitz attended high school at Collegiate School (New York City) on the Upper West Side.[2] Rose described Haimovitz as "probably the greatest talent I have ever taught", praising his "ravishingly beautiful tone" and "unusual sense of style and musical sensitivity".

In February 1985, Haimovitz joined Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert which was filmed and broadcast. This success was followed in 1986 by an American tour with Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, as well as concerts with the New York Philharmonic. In the same year Haimovitz was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant for exceptional musical achievement, the youngest musician to receive this award. Over the next decade, Haimovitz appeared with many of the major orchestras of North America, Europe and Asia, and worked with the most distinguished conductors. In 1987, at the age of 17, Haimovitz signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, where several of his recordings of standard and non-standard repertoire won international awards.[3]

Recent career

After graduating from Harvard College in 1996, and with the termination of his contract with Deutsche Grammophon, Haimovitz became dissatisfied with the traditional career path of a modern classical musician. He began exploring non-standard classical and non-classical repertoire more intensively, and began a program of concerts in unusual venues.[4] A 2002 North American tour that attracted international attention saw Haimovitz performing Bach's cello suites in night clubs, restaurants and other highly untraditional venues in a wide variety of towns and cities across the United States. This was followed in 2003 by Haimovitz's Anthem tour, in which he brought a variety of American compositions to a similar variety of audiences, including his rendition of Jimi Hendrix's famous improvisational rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

In 2000, Haimovitz founded his own record label, Oxingale with partner and wife,[5] composer Luna Pearl Woolf, which has released CD recordings of his own recital programs, as well as music performed by others. In 2010 this label expanded to include a music publishing branch, which features works commissioned, performed, and recorded by Haimovitz.[6]

"Shuffle. Play.Listen", his 2-disc collaboration with pianist Christopher O'Riley in 2011, was hailed for its innovation in mixing together Bernard Hermann film scores, Janácek, and Cocteau Twins. "The idea behind it is to blast away at any and all categories...",[7] wrote Richard Ginell of the L.A. Times.

From 1999 to 2004, Haimovitz was a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts. Since 2004, he has taught at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal as well as the Domaine Forget academy for the arts in rural Quebec.

In June 2013, Haimovitz went on an international tour to Italy performing with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. He also recorded Philip Glass' Cello Concerto No. 2 with Dennis Russell Davies and the Cincinnati Symphony; the concerto is a reworking of the film score ''Naqoyqatsi''.[8]

From 2015 Oxingale and PENTATONE record label have joined forces and formed the PENTATONE Oxingale Series, re-releasing old albums - now also digitally available and distributed worldwide - and producing new ones. In 2015, Haimovitz released two recordings on PENTATONE using period instruments: the cello sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven, with pianist Christopher O'Riley; and a second recording of Bach's cello suites (on Haimovitz's earlier traversal, recorded in 2000, he had used a modernized cello and bow).

Discography
Release dateAlbumLabel
1989Saint-Saens: Cello Concertos / Bruch: Kol Nidrei / Lalo: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in D MinorDeutsche Grammophon
1990Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Boccherini: Cello ConcertosDeutsche Grammophon
1992Suites and Sonatas for Solo Cello - Reger: Suite in G major, Op. 131c/1; Crumb: Sonata; Britten: Suite No. 1, Op. 72; Ligeti: SonataDeutsche Grammophon
1995Trios with Rob WassermanGRP Records
1995The 20th Century CelloDeutsche Grammophon
1997The 20th Century Cello Volume 2Deutsche Grammophon
1999Portes Ouvertes: The 20th Century Cello Volume 3Deutsche Grammophon
1999UndertreeOxingale Records
2000Bach: 6 Suites for Cello SoloOxingale Records
2001Lemons DescendingOxingale Records
2002The Rose AlbumOxingale Records
2003AnthemOxingale Records
2003Haydn: The Cello Concertos; Mozart: Cello ConcertoTransart Live
2003Hyperstring TrilogyOxingale Records
2004Please Welcome...Matt HaimovitzOxingale Records
2004EpilogueOxingale Records
2005Goulash!Oxingale Records
2006Mozart the MasonOxingale Records
2006Apres Moi, le DelugeOxingale Records
2007David Sanford & the Pittsburgh Collective: Live at the Knitting FactoryOxingale Records
2007After Reading ShakespeareOxingale Records
2007VinylCelloOxingale Records
2008J.S. Bach Goldberg VariationsOxingale Records
2008Odd CoupleOxingale Records
2008 And if the song be worth a smile Pentatone
2009FigmentOxingale Records
2010Meeting of the SpiritsOxingale Records
2011Shuffle.Play.Listen (In collaboration with Christopher O'RileyOxingale Records
2011Matteo: 300 Years of Italian CelloOxingale Records
2012Paul Moravec: Northern Lights ElectricBMOP/sound
2012Laura Elise Schwendinger: Three WorksAlbany Music Distribution
2013Glass: Cello Concerto No. 2 "Naqoyqatsi"Orange Mountain Music
2013 The Hours Begin to Sing Pentatone
2013AngelHeartOxingale Records
2014 Akoka: Reframing Oliver Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time Oxingale Records
2015 Beethoven, Period. PENTATONE
2015 Orbit PENTATONE
2015 J.S. Bach The Cello Suites According to Anna Magdalena PENTATONE
2016 Shuffle.Play.Listen PENTATONE
2016 Schubert Arpeggione Sonata & String Quintet PENTATONE
2016 Ouvertures to Bach PENTATONE
2016 Out of the Shadows PENTATONE
2017 Akoka - Reframing Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time PENTATONE
2017 Meeting of the Spirits PENTATONE
2017 Troika PENTATONE
2018 PENTATONE OXINGALE SERIES ''MOZART DIVERTIMENTO & Preludes to Bach" PENTATONE
2018 PENTATONE OXINGALE SERIES "Tippet Rise Opus 2017" PENTATONE
2018 PENTATONE OXINGALE SERIES ''Isang Yun - Sunrise Falling" PENTATONE
2020 MON AMI, Mon Amour - French Repertoire for Cello and Piano (with Mari Kodama) PENTATONE

References
  1. Judy Polan, "Q & A with Matt Haimovitz",The Jewish Ledger, April 22, 2010
  2. https://search.proquest.com/docview/110521479
  3. Archived August 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Usmani, Josh. "Free Comic Book Day Finds an Exciting Annual Home at Carol and John's | Arts Lead | Cleveland Scene". Clevescene.com. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-04-14. Retrieved 2015-10-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Sheet music from award-winning contemporary composers". Oxingalemusic.com. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  7. Ginell, Richard (January 19, 2012). "Shuffle. Play. Listen". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  8. Johnson, Daniel Stephen (March 11, 2013). "A Second Look at Philip Glass's Monumental 'Naqoyqatsi'". WQXR New York. Retrieved October 10, 2015.

Further reading
  • Russell, Anna (September 17, 2018). "Reunion". The Talk of the Town. The Musical Life. The New Yorker. 94 (28): 16.[lower-alpha 1]

Notes
  1. Online version is titled "An emotional reunion between cello and cellist".
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