CityMusic Cleveland presents an intimate chamber music performance featuring Grammy Award-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz
For its next performance series, CityMusic Cleveland, whose mission is to expose non-traditional audiences to classical music and to break down the barriers to enjoyment through its free concert series performed in local venues throughout Northeast Ohio, is teaming up with Grammy Award nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz, who has built a reputation as a musical pioneer and inspired countless classical music lovers and new listeners by bringing his artistry to an array of novel venues.
Matt Haimovitz will join viola player Nokuthula Ngwenyama, this year’s L.A. Times Face to Watch, and CityMusic Cleveland’s talented musicians for an intimate evening chamber music performance on Tuesday, May 17, at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, 2757 Fairmount Boulevard in Cleveland Heights, at 7:30 p.m. Free childcare services are available, but reservations are a must; call 216-321-5800.
With this performance series, CityMusic Cleveland is embracing fresh, vibrant talent that has broken out of the boundaries of the traditional and inspired new music enthusiasts of all ages.
Matt Haimovitz has become known as a champion of new music; initiating groundbreaking collaborations; innovative recording projects with his own label, Oxingale Records; tirelessly touring and mentoring a new generation of award-winning cellists at McGill University’s School of Music in Montreal.
A child prodigy, Haimovitz made his debut in 1984 at the age of 13 as a soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. Through the course of his career, he has played all over the world, including at Carnegie Hall, with the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Haimovitz became the first classical artist to play at New York’s infamous CBGB club as part of his highly acclaimed Listening Room Tour, during which Haimovitz played cello in clubs across the U.S, Canada and the U.K.
Haimovitz’s Meeting of the Spirits received a 2010 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album. Two other recent Oxingale albums have been nominated for Juno Awards: After Reading Shakespeare and Mozart the Mason.
In 2006, Haimovitz received the Concert Music Award from ASCAP for his advocacy of living composers and pioneering spirit, and in 2004, the American Music Center awarded Haimovitz the Trailblazer Award, for his far-reaching contributions to American music. Haimovitz has also been honored with the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1986), the Grand Prix du Disque (1991), the Diapason d'Or (1991) and he is the first cellist ever to receive the prestigious Premio Internazionale "Accademia Musicale Chigiana" (1999).
Ngwenyama, who is this season’s Artist-In-Residence at the Taft Museum, first drew international attention to herself when she won the Primrose International Viola Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions at age 17. Her debut recitals at the Kennedy Center and in New York City at the 92nd Street “Y” received high praise and, in 1998, she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Included among the venues she has played are the White House, the Louvre, the Forde Center in Toronto, the Cosmos Club in Washington DC, Symphony Space and Merkin Hall in New York, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and appearances with the Cincinnati Symphony, the Numberg Philharmonic, the Charlotte, Austin, Jackson and Memphis Symphonies and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Katherine Bulava
Katherine Bulava is president of Hatha Communications, a public relations firm.