In 2000, Matt Haimovitz celebrated the 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach’s death with a live-television broadcast of the complete solo Bach cello suites at the Schwetzingen Castle in Germany. Subsequently, Haimovitz took Bach’s beloved cello suites out of the concert hall, performing them in intimate venues and music clubs across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. The Bach Listening-Room Tour sold-out nearly every performance, and was profiled on National Public Radio’s ‘Performance Today’ and PRI’s ‘The World,’ as well as in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, the Seattle Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Among the rave reviews, LA Times critic Mark Swed writes, “In these experiments, Haimovitz has, indeed, recaptured the freshness in music making. There is nothing like the intimacy of hearing great music in a close, casual environment, and Monday night the cellist seemed to absorb as much energy from the crowd as we did from him.” Philadelphia Enquirer critic David Patrick Stearns remarks, “If playing Bach in the Old City folk club the Tin Angel was an experiment, cellist Matt Haimovitz succeeded Monday in ways that say as much about the needs of the music-loving public as his extraordinary talent.”

OXINGALE RECORDS’ debut release, Matt Haimovitz’s J. S. Bach: 6 Suites for Cello Solo was nominated for the INDIE AWARD for BEST SOLO CLASSICAL RECORDING OF 2001. The album was the winner of a Just Plain Folks Award for BEST SOLO CLASSICAL RECORDING of 2001. Featured in Billboard, and a TOP PICK in U. S. News and World Report, the set is accompanied by a 24-page booklet featuring musical commentary on each suite and 15 black and white photographs.