Matt Haimovitz

by Chris TrueBorn in Israel in 1970, cellist Matt Haimovitz came to prominence as a teenager, beginning his studies at Juilliard in 1983 and playing with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985. He first played with the New York Philharmonic at the age of 16, and by 17 he had secured a record deal with classical music giant Deutsche Grammophon. His first release for the label, 1989's Lalo and Saint-Saens Cello Concertos, was followed by albums of cello work by composers such as Bach, Boccherini, and Haydn, and Haimovitz also performed -- as in the case of the Rob Wasserman album Trios -- with some of pop music's biggest names such as Elvis Costello, Neil Young, and Jerry Garcia. Haimovitz graduated from Harvard in 1996, and in 2000 (upon the end of his deal with Deutsche Grammophon) formed his own label, Oxingale. With his own brand established, Haimovitz would decide to break out of the more rigid and stale molds of traditional classical music, and he began playing more modern works and performing traditional works in non-traditional locations. He continued to release albums -- in addition to teaching at McGill University in Montreal -- over the next few years, working with a number of different players and performing a number of different composers' works. In 2007, he released the album Vinyl Cello, and a year later was nominated for a Juno Award.