Matt Haimovitz enters the new decade with an wide array of performances - from Elliot Carter to Victor Herbert, and from Shostakovich to Mark O’Connor

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Matt Haimovitz brings his FIGMENT program for solo cello to the west coast with performances in Seattle, Portland and Eugene (Jan 20-22), based on his newest CD, which has been called “spellbinding” (Time Out Chicago), “a sound voyage that constantly surprises with its sonic landscapes and its playfulness ... monstrously inventive” (Valley Advocate) and was one of the Boston Herald’s Top Ten CDs of the 2009. The West Coast Figment dates will also integrate the groundbreaking Seven Ricercare for Violoncello Solo by Domenico Gabrielli (1651-1690). These precursors to the Bach Cello Suites will be interwoven with the modern works by Elliott Carter, Ana Sokolovic, Luna Pearl Woolf, Gilles Tremblay and Steven Stucky.

Haimovitz returns to New York to celebrate the 150th birthday of popular composer Victor Herbert with the Little Orchestra Society on February 1 at Alice Tully Hall. He performs Herbert’s Cello Concerto No.2.

The next day, Matt Haimovitz arrives in Cleveland where he is featured in six concerts over five days with CityMusic, the Cleveland chamber orchestra that brings free performances to different neighbourhoods across the city. In addition to the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1, Haimovitz will bring along the orchestra post-performance to the Anatolia Cafe for a special late-night performance of Vivaldi Concerti and multi-cello jazz arrangements on Saturday, February 6 at 10:15.

Matt then heads to Toronto when he will perform in the Canadian premieres of Mark O'Connor's String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3, featuring O'Connor and Ida Kavafian (violins) and Paul Neubauer (viola) at the new Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music on February 13. The CD of this repertoire released last spring is nominated for a 2009 GRAMMY Award (Producer of the Year).

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