Matt Haimovitz, cello

Born in Israel, Haimovitz made his debut in 1984 at the age of thirteen, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. At seventeen he made his first recording, performing the Saint-Sans, Lalo, and Bruch concerti with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for Deutsche Grammophon. Haimovitz has since gone on to perform on the world s most esteemed stages, with such orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic with James Levine, the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin and the Cleveland Orchestra with Charles Dutoit.

Haimovitz has been honored with the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1986), the Grand Prix du Disque (1991), the Diapason d Or (1991) and Harvard s Louis Sudler Prize (1996); and was the first cellist ever to receive the prestigious Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana  (1999). In 2004 the American Music Center awarded Haimovitz the Trailblazer Award, for his far-reaching contributions to American music; and in 2006 he received the Concert Music Award from ASCAP for his advocacy of living composers, innovative programming and pioneering spirit. He has been featured in numerous publications; has been the subject of full-length televised features; and has appeared on PBS s Salute to the Arts and Nova.

As in his concerto and solo work, Haimovitz s approach to chamber music ventures beyond the traditional. In May 2007, he joined clarinetist David Krakauer, Geoff Nuttall, DJ Socalled, and colleagues in a residency at the Banff Centre, where they explored the relationship between Messaien s Quartet for the End of Time and klezmer music, from the perspective of the Quartet s original clarinetist, Henri Akoka. On his recent tour and Oxingale recording, Goulash!, Haimovitz delved into Béla Bartòk s influence on the next generation of Transylvanian composers, Gyrgy Ligeti and Adrian Pop, and improvised with such diverse artists as the legendary guitarist John McLaughlin, DJ Olive, and Constantinople, a five-member Middle Eastern ensemble.

Alongside his performing and recording activities, Matt Haimovitz is Professor of Cello at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montréal, Quebec. He has established an award-winning cello studio, with students taking first prize in Canada s prestigious Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, among others. Prior to joining McGill University, he spent five years as head of the cello program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Haimovitz himself studied at the Collegiate School in New York and at the Juilliard School, in the final class of Leonard Rose, after which he continued his cello studies with Ronald Leonard and Yo-Yo Ma. In 1996, he received a B.A. magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University. Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller. He lives in Montréal, Quebec, with his wife, composer Luna Pearl Woolf, and their daughter.

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