U OUGHT TO KNOW.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

MATT HAIMOVITZ

Age: 35

Profession: Cellist, professor of cello at the English-language McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Why U ought to know him: When Haimovitz draws the bow across the strings of his 18th-century Venetian cello at the Knitting Factory on Tuesday, the music of Bela Bartok won't be the only classic you'll hear.

That's because Haimovitz, the Israeli-born, American-raised cellist who has earned a reputation for bringing classical music to rock dives like New York's punk landmark CBGB's, has broadened his repertoire over the years.

These days, you're just as likely to hear him play Led Zeppelin riffs alongside the folk musings of the 20th-century Hungarian composer that inspires his latest CD, ``Goulash!''

``Bela Bartok was really the first ethnomusicologist who went out into the field ... and documented the folk culture of the region and started to hear these connections,'' Haimovitz says. ``He also systematically started incorporating the folk tradition into his compositional process. That's what this project is really about.''

The album includes pieces by Osvaldo Golijov, Gyorgy Ligeti and three Haimovitz arrangements, including a mix with DJ Olive in which the turntable whiz spins a recording of a Hungarian folk tune sung by Bartok while the cellist plays selections from the composer's Romanian Folk Dances.

Led Zeppelin's ``Kashmir'' opens the set. That song, like most of the rock songs that Haimovitz has tackled in recent years, including the crowd pleaser ``Anthem'' - done in the style of Jimi Hendrix's legendary Woodstock rendition of ``The Star-Spangled Banner'' - was introduced to the cellist later in life.

``I grew up very sheltered in the classical music world,'' says the one-time child prodigy, whose playing so impressed Itzhak Perlman that the acclaimed violinist sent the then-11- year-old to study at Juilliard with the legendary Leonard Rose, who also taught Yo-Yo Ma.

When he was 13, Haimovitz began performing with great orchestras like the New York Philharmonic. A record contract with Deutsche Grammophon later followed, although he now records on Oxingale, a label he founded with his composer wife, Luna Pearl Woolf.

The cello: ``When I first heard the cello, I was fascinated by the sound of it. It seemed very mysterious and exotic.''

His rationale for playing the club circuit: ``Pieces like the Bach Cello Suites were never really intended for a 2,000-seat concert hall. They were intimate pieces. Bach wrote them when we was writing for the court in the Eastern part of Germany, and the room where he played them was probably the size of the Knitting Factory in L.A. Those are the types of intimate spaces where chamber music originated and we've just lost that sense. The music, itself, is so human and has so many qualities that reach out and communicate to a universal audience. But there are all these layers that have been added in the concert hall, like the fact that you have to dress a certain way and have a certain etiquette. People who don't go regularly to concerts are intimidated by all this. They don't know where to clap. Should they clap at the end of a movement or at the end of the piece? How do you know where the end is? And so, when I go into a club, I strip all that away, and I think people are more relaxed.''

A dash of Zeppelin in his 'Goulash!': ``The album is about celebrating folk music and ... cultures, and how this music gets incorporated into the art language of our time. When I first heard 'Kashmir' ... I said, 'Hey, wait a minute - this Turkish mode fits perfectly into my Bartok project.' Also, I thought it would make a great arrangement for four cellos.''

'The Star-Spangled Banner ' - Hendrix style: ``I first heard Jimi Hendrix's 'Star-Spangled Banner' in my first year at college. My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe the virtuosity of his guitar-playing. I had always imagined it on the cello, but I didn't dare do it. And then, in October 2002, when I was playing in New York City at CBGB's ... I decided to finally do it, and so I played that arrangement. Historically, it was at the time when the current administration was talking about going to war with Iraq. I thought of the parallels in the statement that Hendrix was making, the ultimate expression of patriotism in this country, that you can express yourself freely because we have the freedom to do that and to not take that for granted. That feeling was very much in the air. So, I played it, and the response was very powerful. I don't usually get a response like that after a Bach suite.''

About his cello: ``My cello is from 1710. It's Venetian, made by one of the great cello makers, Matteo Gofriller. Unlike cars, these guys get better with age. Something matures. Nobody quite understands what happens with the wood and the varnish, but they really have a certain character and personality, each one. A great cello will adapt to your personality but will also force you to adapt to its personality, and so it's really a marriage in some ways.''

Where U can see him perform: Haimovitz will perform songs from ``Goulash!'' with three of his students from McGill University and the group UCCELLO, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Knitting Factory, 7021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Tickets are $15. Call [phone] or www.knittingfactory.com.

If U want more information: www.oxingale.com

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no caption (Matt Haimovitz)