(MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- Cellist Ani Kalayjian and pianist David Kaplan, Co-Artistic Directors of Chatham-based Lyrica Chamber Music, curate a program featuring the triumphant A major Dvorak piano quintet, Florence Price, Amy Beach, "Armenian/Danish Folk Mixtape" featuring Komitas/Aslamazyan and Danish String Quartet arrangements Wood Works, and Brahms! The event takes place at the Morris Museum on Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 3:00pm.
Don’t miss this ensemble of world-class chamber musicians featuring violinists Siwoo Kim, Kobi Malkin, violist Tanner Menees, cellist Ani Kalayjian, and pianist David Kaplan for an outstanding afternoon of exquisite chamber music!
Tickets are $28 for the general public, $23 for members. Tickets are available for purchase online. For assistance and to make purchases by phone, call the box office at 973-971-3706. The ticket price includes a non-refundable $3.00 service fee. Programs are subject to change. The Morris Museum is located at 6 Normandy Heights Road in Morristown, New Jersey.
This is a co-presentation with Lyrica Chamber Music, which has brought chamber music to Morris County since 1987.
Performers include: Siwoo Kim, violin; Kobi Malkin, violin; Tanner Menees, viola; Ani Kalayjian, cello & Co-Artistic Director; and David Kaplan, piano & Co-artistic Director.
Siwoo Kim is an “incisive” and “compelling” violinist (The New York Times) who “plays with stylistic sensitivity and generous tonal nuance.” (The Chicago Tribune) Siwoo actively performs as soloist & chamber musician and he is the founding co-artistic director of VIVO Music Festival in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
Since his Carnegie Hall debut with the Juilliard Orchestra, he has gone on to perform as soloist with orchestras in four different continents. As chamber musician, he performs at festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, collaborating with revered artists including Mitsuko Uchida, Denes Varjon and Susan Graham. An advocate of new music, Siwoo premiered and recorded Samuel Adler’s only violin concerto on Linn Records and VIVO Music Festival annually co-commissions new chamber music works with Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain. This season, Siwoo recorded and released the premiere recording of Michael Torke’s “Last” on Ecstatic Records with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO).
Siwoo received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with Robert Mann and Donald Weilerstein. He went on to complete a two-year fellowship at Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program.
Violinist Kobi Malkin is known for his expressive artistry and compelling performances as both a soloist and chamber musician. Praised by The New York Times for his “gorgeous tone and edge-of-seat intensity,” he has appeared with the Saint Louis Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, and Jerusalem Symphony, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and other major venues. A passionate chamber musician, Malkin has collaborated with artists such as Mitsuko Uchida, Itzhak Perlman, and Kim Kashkashian, and has appeared at Marlboro, Ravinia, Yellow Barn, and Music@Menlo. He is a winner of the Aviv Competitions and other international awards, and a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships. He currently serves as concertmaster of the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra and is an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. Malkin holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory.
Born in Orange, CA in 1993, Violist Tanner Menees is forging a robust career as a chamber musician. Mr. Menees has collaborated in chamber music performances with a range of notable artists including Miriam Fried, Susan Graham, Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Laurence Lesser, Mitsuko Uchida, and Donald Weilerstein. Tanner is a new member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and also regularly plays with NOVUS of Trinity Church and A Far Cry. As a soloist Tanner has performed with the Colburn Orchestra, Symphony New Hampshire, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. As a proponent of new American music, he regularly performs and records with Copland House. Mr. Menees has performed internationally at festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars and Chamber Feast, Chamberfest Cleveland, Edinburgh Music Festival, Festival Mozaic, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, and with NEXUS Chamber Music Chicago among many others. Tanner received his Bachelor of Music degree and Artist Diploma from the Colburn School, where he studied with Paul Coletti. Later he studied with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory where he earned a Master of Music degree. Tanner plays on a viola of the Tarasconi school made in Milan, Italy c. 1880.
David Kaplan is a New York-born piano soloist and chamber musician, praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard. He has appeared as soloist with the Britten Sinfonia and Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, and most recently with the Symphony Orchestras of Hawaii and San Antonio. 2024 was a year of new albums, including the GRAMMY-nominated “DECODA”, and a highly acclaimed solo debut, “New Dances of the League of David,” which was lauded by Financial Times, Gramophone, Fanfare, and more. He has given recitals at the Ravinia Festival, Washington’s National Gallery, and New York’s Carnegie and Merkin Halls, and in addition to his work with Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, has collaborated with the Attacca, Ariel, and Tesla String Quartets. Kaplan is the Associate Professor and Inaugural Shapiro Family Chair in Piano Performance at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where he has taught since 2016. A graduate of UCLA, Yale, and a Fulbright scholar in Berlin, Kaplan’s teachers and mentors include Claude Frank, Walter Ponce, Miyoko Lotto, and Richard Goode. Away from the keyboard, he loves cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars.
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “representing the young, up-and-coming generation,” and a “superb cellist with a large, expressive, singing tone, passionate musicianship, and magnificent playing” by the Journal Tribune, Armenian-American cellist Ani Kalayjian leads a multi-faceted career as a chamber musician, soloist, collaborator, artistic director and educator that has taken her to Japan, Australia, Canada, the Middle East, and throughout Europe and the United States. Artistic Director of Carriage House Concerts at The Woman’s Club of Englewood and Co-Artistic Director of Lyrica Chamber Music in Chatham, she is at home in diverse musical settings and sought-after for her openhearted, passionate and vibrantly detailed approach to music-making.
At the heart of Ani’s artistic practice is her love of chamber music & interdisciplinary collaborations and the development of adventurous new works. Her most recent projects included recording Albanian minimalist composer Fatrin Krajka’s new album as well as new collaboration with a World Premiere by Polina Nazakinskaya and MORDANCE company in NYC, and new solo cello concerts in 2025-2026 featuring works spanning from medieval Armenian chants by Naregatsi to living composers Layale Chaker, Mary Kouyoumdjian and more.
The Program
* Dances in the Canebrakes “Nimble Feet” –Florence Price
* Romance –Amy Beach
* Armenian/Danish Folk Mixtape
*Pieces on Themes of Armenian Folk Songs (selection) – Komitas/Aslamazyan
* Scandinavian folk songs: Wood Works (selection) – Danish String Quartet
INTERMISSION
* Op. 118 Nos 1 & 2 – Johannes Brahms
Intermezzo in A minor
Intermezzo in A major
* Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major Op. 81 – Antonin Dvorak
Allegro ma non tanto
Dumka: Andante con moto
Scherzo (Furiant): Molto vivace
Finale: Allegro
