ATHENS, Ga. —UGA Presents is bringing cellist Matt Haimovitz to Athens to perform Bach’s complete suites for unaccompanied cello in a two-day event he calls “A Moveable Feast.” On Apr. 3 and 4 Haimovitz will perform pop-up concerts in locations around Athens, culminating in a Hodgson Concert Hall performance on Apr. 4 at 7:30 p.m.
For his Moveable Feast, Haimovitz has commissioned preludes from contemporary composers to accompany each of Bach’s suites. The Apr. 4 Hodgson Hall concert will feature Bach’s Suite I with prelude by Philip Glass, Suite III with prelude by Vijay Iyer and Suite VI with prelude by Luna Pearl Woolf.
Haimovitz has been praised by The New Yorker as a “remarkable virtuoso” and by The New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles.”
He made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, and he made his first recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 17. Haimovitz was the first classical artist to play at New York’s legendary CBGB club, in a performance filmed by ABC News for Nightline UpClose.
In 1996 he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. He has gone on to perform around the world with leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
Following is the schedule for the Bach Suites: A Moveable Feast:
• April 3 at 12:00 p.m. on UGA North Campus – sidewalk near Chapel steps
Bach Suite IV with prelude by Roberto Sierra
Free event
• April 3 at 5:00 p.m. at the opening of the Farmer’s Market next to Creature Comforts,271 W. Hancock Ave. in downtown Athens
Bach Suite V with prelude by David Sanford
Free event
• April 4 at 12:00 p.m. at the UGA Tate Student Center Atrium
Bach Suite II with prelude by Du Yun
Free event
• Apr. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Hodgson Concert Hall
Bach Suite I, Suite III and Suite VI with preludes by Philip Glass, Vijay Iyer and Luna Pearl Woolf
Ticketed event
Tickets for the Hodgson Hall concert start at $25 and can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center box office, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling 706-542-4400. A limited number of discounted tickets are available to current UGA students for $6 and $10 with a valid UGA ID (limit one ticket per student).
The concert will be recorded for broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today, the most popular classical music program in the U.S.
A pre-performance talk will be given by David Starkweather, professor of cello in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. The talk begins at 6:45 p.m. in Ramsey Concert Hall.
Patrons are invited to make it an evening with a tour and free dessert at the Georgia Museum of Art at 5:30 p.m.
Hodgson Concert Hall and Ramsey Concert Hall are located in the UGA Performing Arts Center at 230 River Road in Athens.