Robert Marcus, clarinet

Natalia Kazaryan, piano

Friday, April 25, 2025

“Grand Sonata for Piano & ‘Cello Obliggato,” in G minor Op 5, No. 2 -  Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
I. Adagio Sostenuto et espressivo/Allegro Molto
II. Rondo Allegro

Cello Sonata in E minor, Op.38 -  Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
I. Allegro non tropo
II. Allegretto quasi Menuetto
III. Allegro

About the Artists:

Robert Marcus recently celebrated his 76th year of playing the clarinet. His initial studies took place in Los Angeles, where his teachers were Mitchell Lurie and Antonio Raimondi. He received additional training at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West. Although his primary career was in Medicine, he has been an active chamber and orchestral musician throughout his adult life. His primary orchestral affiliation was the Redwood Symphony, where he appeared as soloist in Clarinet Concertos by Mozart, John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, and Miguel del Aguila. Robet and his wife, Ann, moved to Washington DC in 2023, joining the Arts Club of Washington in 2024. 

From Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, pianist Natalia Kazaryan has been hailed by The New York Sun for her “prodigious ability,” remarking that she “immediately established an atmosphere of strength and confidence.” She is “a marvel among marvels … fascinating, elegant” (Nice-Matin) and “incredible” (All Classical Portland).

A passionate advocate for innovative programming in classical music, Ms. Kazaryan is dedicated to giving equal prominence to historically overlooked composers. She notably curated and performed a recital of all women composers at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., a performance The Washington Post named “one of the best classical concerts of the summer 2019.”

As a soloist, she has recently performed both major and lesser-known concertos — including those of Florence Price, Clara Schumann, Rachmaninov, Grieg, Prokofiev, and Mozart — with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, Alexandria Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony, and other ensembles across the country. Natalia’s acclaimed performance of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement, conducted by James Ross, was featured on Front Row Washington (WETA), DC’s classical music radio station.

Recent standout performances include Ms. Kazaryan opening Portland Piano International’s return to in-person concerts; a George Walker Musical Portrait at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC; and appearing in solo recitals on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago and on the Millennium Stage, presented by the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Ms. Kazaryan is the founder of Counterpoint Concerts, a Washington DC-based nonprofit concert series committed to both tradition and innovation in classical music. The series presents diverse, forward-thinking programs with a strong emphasis on community building. Its inaugural all-Bach program, performed on period, modern, and electronic instruments and featuring musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra, incorporated multimedia elements and was presented on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.
Ms. Kazaryan recently released three EPs to Spotify and Apple Music: Lili Boulanger’s Trois morceaux pour piano; Bacewicz Piano Sonata No. 2; and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. All recordings were previously made at her Philadelphia recital debut presented by Astral Artists, which included a special commission by Alexandra Gardner. In 2016, she won Astral’s National Auditions. 

She has appeared in the U.S. and Europe at key venues such as New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Cultural Campus, Salzburg’s Schloss Mirabell, Monaco’s Théâtre des Variétés, Madrid’s Auditorio Sony, and Paris’ Salle Cortot and Musée Carnavalet. She performs regularly at the Palazzo Tornabuoni in Florence and has participated in the IMS Prussia Cove Master Classes in Cornwall, England. 

Ms. Kazaryan began studying piano at the age of six and performed as soloist with the Tbilisi State Chamber Orchestra just one year later. She studied in the preparatory division of the Tbilisi Music Conservatory with Alla Nakashidze. She holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied under Jerome Lowenthal and Matti Raekallio. She completed doctoral studies at the University of Michigan under Logan Skelton.

The first Juilliard student to participate in the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy exchange with the Paris Conservatoire, Ms. Kazaryan studied piano in Paris with Michel Béroff and chamber music with Valérie Aimard. An active chamber musician, she took part in the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship, dedicated to collaboration between The Juilliard School, the Paris Conservatoire, and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien. She later won both a Fulbright Grant and a Harriett Hale Woolley Scholarship to Paris to continue her studies, with a focus on Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus.

From 2013-2015, she studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, under Dimitri Bashkirov, and in June 2014 received a “Sobresaliente” Award from the hands of Queen Sofía of Spain for outstanding work and excellence.

Ms. Kazaryan serves as Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Area Coordinator at Howard University in Washington D.C.

This project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.