Sunday Event Preview: Classical Violinist Anat Malkin Comes to Mahwah

On Sunday March 21 at 2 p.m., classical violinist Anat Malkin will return to the to perform for resident fans of classical music. Malkin said she is looking forward to once again gracing the Mahwah Library with her music.

“We love coming to the Mahwah Library,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in New York City. “The people are there are some warm and friendly.”

She has played at Carnegie Hall, and performed in Moscow, Holland, France, Argentina, Israel, Italy, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

“Coming to a venue like the Mahwah Library is amazing, because the people show up because of their love of the music,” she said. She said that performing at concerts with hundreds of people in the audience is more structured environment but at the Mahwah Library it is a place where she can perform for fun.

Malkin will be performing pieces from Max Bruch’s Eight Pieces for Viola, Violin and Piano, Mozart’s “Kegelstadt” trio, Glinka’s Three Russian Pieces, and Schumann’s Fairy Tales.

Malkin said she has been playing music such as this since she was 5 years old when she was taught by her father, a trained classical musician. She explained that when she was in her late teens and she entered The Juilliard School classical music became her own.

“I learned that with classical music that even within classical music there sub-genres,” she said. She explained she can play a piece by Beethoven and Bach, but their music can be subdivided by their age when it was compensated.

“To put it this way, it is like playing the works of Paul McCartney during his time with the Beatles and playing the music Paul McCartney composes today,” she said.

She admits that her personal interests go past the classical selections.

“Sometimes, I like clear my head with something classical, but I have tons of CDs by artists like Madonna, Guns-n-Roses and Eminem,” she said. “And I also have several jazz albums I enjoy listening to.”

However, she always finds herself back to classical music, which has taken her and her family all over the world. When not performing, she spends time as a mother of two children.

“Both of my kids have been to Europe several times,” she said with a laugh. “They had passports when they were as young as three months old. I had to take them with me when I was performing in Switzerland for several weeks.” 

“There is a sensibility that classical music no longer has the stigma that it is for the upper crests of rich society, or that it is boring or dead,” she said. “People are learning that there is a certain enigma and talent with classical music.”

She said that for her to play music for as long as she has, she admits there is much for her to learn.

“I am still amazed by what is out there about classical music,” she said. “I do not believe I could perform all the music that has ever been created by the many, many great artists and I am fine with that.”

She said she is happy to play her part in making classical music accessible to fans of not just classical music, but music lovers in general.

For more information, visit Anat Malkin’s site here.