Renowned cellist brings classical music to masses

He didn't see many of his peers at his shows, so he took his music to them.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- The musician settled into a chair onstage, examined his nearly 300-year-old cello and began to play.
Notes filled the air of the Blind Pig nightclub, whose walls were adorned with posters of rock acts, liquor ads and an advertisement for a weekly karaoke contest.
This was one of dozens of club dates world-renowned cellist Matt Haimovitz has played since September, when he began a nationwide tour whose goal is to bring classical music to new listeners. At the Blind Pig, two dozen twentysomethings -- their hands stamped in black ink with the word "PIG" -- sat at tables, snacked on popcorn and drank beer from the bottle.
It was just the kind of audience Haimovitz was hoping for.
"I was looking out into the audiences for years and years in the concert halls and not seeing my peers, not seeing my generation out there," said the 33-year-old Haimovitz, who became violinist Itzhak Perlman's prot & eacute;g & eacute; at age 10. "The idea is to bring music where people feel comfortable listening."
Orchestras and more
Not many musicians can boast of having performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle. Or with the Berlin Philharmonic and at the Mangy Moose in Jackson, Wyo.
At the Blind Pig, which has hosted Pearl Jam and Nirvana, Haimovitz may have looked slightly out of place with his suit jacket and cello, which was built in 1710 by the Venetian luthier Matteo Gofriller.
But the audience didn't seem to mind.
Aside from a Bach piece, Haimovitz mostly played material from his latest album, "Anthem," which features solo cello works from a number of contemporary American composers, including Lou Harrison, Steven Mackey, Toby Twining and David Sanford.
"This is music that right now doesn't have a lot of life out there in the music world, and these are clubs that present eclectic music and are open to new developments in music," Haimovitz said. "I guess that was a natural to take this kind of music across the country and play in these kinds of venues."
The highlight of the Blind Pig show may have been the performance of the disc's title track, Haimovitz's own arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's acid-tinged rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock.
On that and other pieces, Haimovitz manipulates his cello to achieve a variety of sounds not normally associated with the instrument.
He moves the bow close to the bridge to produce a distorted, high-frequency sound, plucks the strings with his fingers and even slaps his open hand on the wood, using the cello like a drum.
"I do just about everything with the instrument except light it on fire and throw it into the audience," Haimovitz said.
Haimovitz's 2000 recording of Bach's "Six Suites for Cello Solo" garnered critical acclaim and led to his Bach "Listening-Room Tour," in which he made his first foray into intimate clubs and coffeehouses.
"The boundaries already are blurred in my mind between what is classical and what is from the popular genres," Haimovitz said. "That's kind of the idea -- to take this music and just make it available and accessible to anyone who wants to come into contact with it. My strong belief is that it is music for anyone. It's not just for the few."
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