Cover girls Close-knit Eroica Trio role models for female chamber musicians

The build-up to the audition for the prestigious Naumburg Award was taxing and trying for the members of the Eroica Trio – and not just because Sara Sant’Ambrogio, the cellist in the group, was recovering from a broken elbow. The rehearsals were brutal. Any shot at victory demanded intense focus and relentless sacrifice. After all, the Naumburg is one of the most coveted prizes in the music world not only because it comes with money, but because it assures performances at Lincoln Center as well as additional performance and recording opportunities.

“We had to do a killer audition,” said violinist Adela Pena, recalling the 1991 event. “We knew it would be a turning point for us if we won. We played the audition and it went really well. But then, when there was nothing more we could do, the nerves set in. So we went out and had margaritas.”

In the course of toasting the relief of finishing the audition, pianist Erika Nickrenz went outside to call home and check her messages.

“She walked back into the restaurant and we were looking at her wide-eyed with our margaritas in our hands. When she said we won the Naumburg, we whooped and screamed and everyone in the restaurant thought we had won the lottery. It was really fantastic. I did feel like we had won the lottery even though we worked for it. And it really did put us on the map. It put us on the next professional level.”

Since then, the Eroica Trio, which will perform Sunday at Minsky Hall in Orono, has been blazing that map with international concert tours, five celebrated recordings, and multiple Grammy nominations.

Taking its name from Beethoven’s wildly passionate Symphony No. 3, the Eroica Trio has been praised for lively playing and sensitive interpretations of classical chamber music as well as contemporary works. Music writers have also applauded the group for changing the face of chamber music.

“Just a half-generation ago, there were no all-female groups in chamber music,” said Pena. “At our concerts, we see a lot of young girls who are interested in chamber music. They come up to us after concerts and say: ‘You’ve really inspired me to pursue chamber music. We want to be like the Eroica Trio some day.’ Twenty years ago, they would not have had a role model to follow. So it’s heartening to know we’ve set that example.”

Pena, Sant’Ambrogio and Nickrenz have known one another and studied music together since they were girls. After more than a decade of performing together as the Eroica Trio, they expect to spend more time with one another than with their families, husbands or significant others – although that’s changing, since two of the musicians now have small children. The women, all of whom are in their 30s, rehearse two to three hours a day and have a rigorous tour schedule. Based in New York, the group has been on a tour that began in September, took them to Spain earlier this month, and will include Italy and Germany before ending in June.

“We’re constantly talking to each other even when we are not rehearsing,” said Pena. “When we’re on the road, we’re in each other’s faces all the time. We try not to sit next to each other on planes because we’ll automatically have a business meeting if we’re near each other.”

The place they come the closest, however, is onstage. There, their combined commitment to music and talent for playing – not to mention their penchant for designer gowns – come together to deliver what music critics have labeled intense, intimate, subtle, articulate musicianship.

This Sunday’s concert will include Jean Baptiste Loeillet’s Sonata in B Minor, Beethoven’s Archduke Trio and Brahms’ Trio No. 1 in B Major. The Brahms trios, which Eroica recorded this year on Angel Records/EMI Classics, have become favorite performance pieces for the group.

“There comes a time when you’ve lived with a piece for a while, where you play it night after night on a stage and you just get an incredible high from it,” said Pena. “It’s that spontaneous feeling where you’re really giving to one another, and it’s as though you are one. We felt we reached that level with the Brahms.”

It’s a level, said Pena, which invites listeners to join the experience just as deeply. Of course, at rock concerts and country music concerts, the audience may dance or clap or shout out during the music. At chamber music concerts, Pena and her colleagues look for other signs of audience participation.

“There’s a certain magic that you feel almost more in the silences than in the music itself,” said Pena. “You know that everybody is breathing with you, and you suddenly have this moment – a rest -where everyone is waiting for the next musical event to happen. You feel a breathlessness in the audience. And you just know they are with you.”

The Maine Center for the Arts will present the Eroica Trio 3 p.m. Oct. 27 in Minsky Recital Hall at the University of Maine in Orono. For tickets, call 581-1755.