Born in Israel, Matt Haimovitz is an acclaimed cellist who plays classical music and jazz and teaches at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Famed for his vibrant style, he set out to win new audiences by leaving the concert hall to perform in bars and clubs including the famous New York punk rock venue CBGB. He has performed and recorded works by classic composers such as Bach and Beethoven and modern composers such as Philip Glass and Paul Moravec but also pieces by Arcade Fire, Radiohead and the Cocteau Twins. His 2008 release 'After Reading Shakespeare' and 'Overtures to Bach' in 2017 both won Canada's Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year for Solo Or Chamber Ensemble. 'Meeting of the Spirits' (2010) was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album.
Haimovitz's Romanian family moved from Israel to California when he was five years old and he studied the cello as a child. He was mentored by cellist Leonard Rose who taught him at the Juilliard School in New York. He debuted at the age of 13 with the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta and his first recording was with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when he was 17. Since then he has performed with such esteemed conductors and orchestras as Daniel Barenboim and the English Chamber Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin and the Boston Symphony and Kent Nagano with the Montreal Symphony.
His 'Listening Room' tour of club venues in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom in 2000 playing Bach, and his 2003 'Anthem' tour playing contemporary composers, won him a wide audience that embraced pop and jazz fans. His 2011 album 'Shuffle. Play. Listen' with pianist Christopher O'Riley features excerpts from Bernard Herrmann's score for the Alfred Hitchcock film 'Vertigo' and O'Riley's versions of rock and jazz tunes.
