The 37-year-old cellist, along with the Pittsburgh Collective, performs David Sanford's Scherzo Grosso, for 20-piece big band, at Columbia University's Miller Theatre on October 26. The concert is part of Haimovitz's "Buck the Concerto" tour of new works for cello and unconventional ensembles, which coincides with the release of his second CD on November 6. That recording includes Tod Machover's VinylCello (for which the album is named), performed in collaboration with DJ Olive and the MIT Media Lab; Sanford's Scherzo Grosso; and Luna Pearl Woolf's Aprs Moi, le D_luge, a lament on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for cello and a cappella choir. Also featured on the album is an arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's Machine Gun for an all-cello band.
Switching to waterfront chamber music, Haimovitz performs thereafter at Bargemusic in Brooklyn with pianist Claude Frank, violinist Andy Simionescu and others on October 27 and 28. The concerts have programmed a divertimento and piano quartets by Mozart.
The Israeli-born Harvard graduate is known for his performances in such informal settings as coffee houses, bars and clubs. He became the youngest recipient of an Avery Fisher Grant in 1986 and signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon the following year.
Formerly on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Haimovitz has been teaching at McGill University in Montreal since 2004.
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