Passion Play Eroica Trio members pride themselves on the emotional power of their music

Editor?s Note: Back Talk is a series of live, public interviews conducted by Bangor Daily News arts writer Alicia Anstead in conjunction with the Maine Center for the Arts at the University of Maine. The informal conversations, which will take place before or after various performances at the MCA, will be followed by question-and-answer sessions with the audience. Segments of the occasional interviews will appear in the NEWS Style section and longer audio versions will be available at www.bangornews.com.

When the Eroica Trio performed Beethoven’s beloved “Archduke” trio Sunday in Minsky Hall at the University of Maine in Orono, the packed house of listeners was spellbound. The musicians – Adela Pena on violin, Sara Sant’Ambrogio on cello and Erika Nickrenz on piano – played with such sharpness, grace and eloquence that the audience breathed each note with them. The program also included Jean Baptiste Loeillet’s Trio in B minor and Brahms’ Trio in B Major. As an encore, the Eroica only further wooed the audience with a tenderly rocking version of Brahms’ famous lullaby. After the show, the three women talked with the audience and me about their passion as musicians, their signature designer gowns, having children (Pena and Nickrenz both have toddlers) and the challenges they face as an all-woman trio. Below are excerpts from the post-show talk. For a more complete, audio version, log on to www.bangornews.com and go to the Back Talk icon. – Alicia Anstead

Alicia Anstead: How does a piece of music make it into your repertoire? What does it have to have in order for you to want to do it?

Adela Pena: It has to really engage us. We have to be passionate about hitting that piece at that moment and also it has to fit with our programming. We’re very careful about the way we plan our programs.

Erika Nickrenz: It’s all a matter of timing in our career. This was our first performance of the “Archduke” trio and we waited 16, 17 years because there’s so much to play that you can’t get to everything right off the bat.

Sara Sant’Ambrogio: Since we grew up together, we really come to milestones in a similar time and we have a similar sensibility as to when we feel it’s time to tap on Mount Everest like with the “Archduke” or when it’s time to feel a certain Latin sway. We all three started getting pulled in by Latin music, so we all very much agreed on making a Latin album … We just all naturally began getting into it and finding that it was touching us emotionally, which is the most important thing for any piece. It has to move us emotionally.

Anstead: The chamber music format is an old format in Western music. In the 21st century, what can we still learn from that form?

Nickrenz: Music is all about expressing the composer’s vision and me expressing his or her life experiences. And because you are an individual, it creates a whole new interpretation, which is intertwined with the composer’s. Chamber music – all that means is music played in a smaller room.

Sant’Ambrogio: Sometimes people say because we are such emotional players, such passionate, intense players that we’re very modern and we’re very 21st century. Because there’s so much intensity in pop music and rock and rap and hip-hop, we connect with the audience more that way. That’s very nice of them to say but I think it’s baloney. At the beginning of the century, the performers who were at the top of the heap were extraordinarily passionate, emotional, personally unique interpreters of music … I think we’re going through a period right now in classical music where we are coming back to very deeply felt, personal, emotional, passionate interpretations.

Anstead: You’ve clearly put so much time into your education, rehearsals and commitment to your group. How does that fit into the rest of your life?

Nickrenz: It takes special people to have relationships with [us], people who understand and enjoy traveling with us or meeting up with us in some exotic spots or even someplace that’s not very exciting.

Sant’Ambrogio: The first place my boyfriend met up with us was Memphis. And the next place was Spain.

Nickrenz: Having an 18-month old, that’s a totally new experience to try to balance, to try to still be the musician I’ve tried to be all these years, to keep my technique up and keep being able to practice and being able to be a decent mother. It’s more of a difficult balancing act for me but it’s wonderful.

Pena: I’ve found that [having a 16-month old son] has made me more efficient. I’ve really learned how to prioritize my time. Also, having a family expands you as a person and as a musician. I feel like more of a musician as a result of having a child.

Anstead: So much has been made about you as an all-female group. How much of that do you think has contributed to your success?

Sant’Ambrogio: It actually contributed to how long it took us to be successful because in the beginning, it was very difficult to be taken seriously. People would not even entertain the notion of hiring us because – stupidly, ignorantly – they would look at a picture of us and they would think we looked too good to be able to play. It really took us longer to fight and scrabble our way up the beginning of the ladder. Now when we have finally and completely established ourselves, it has helped a little bit in garnering more publicity.

Pena: One positive thing about earlier on was that it made us work harder. It made us try all the harder and work all the harder and hone our craft all the more and be prepared for that moment when someone did give us a chance.

Sant’Ambrogio: It bonded us together … Part of it was feeling we were one against the world. We really felt we were a team. For good relationships, if you feel that you are a team you have a much better chance of being able to resolve conflict. With us, we really felt like we were a team because we felt the whole world was against us because we were girls.

Anstead: Do you think it affects the music making that you are all-female?

Sant’Ambrogio: No. I am known as having one of the biggest cello sounds around. And I’m not that big and I’m a girl.

Nickrenz: I don’t think anybody could tell by listening to a recording whether it was male or female musicians.

Pena: I think it affects the way we work together. We’re very open to discussing matters. We’ve got this rule that if we make a musical or business decision, majority rules as long as the minority isn’t incredibly upset.

Sant’Ambrogio: We know what’s going on in each other’s lives. We feel we need to know because sometimes someone needs a little helping hand and you know they’re going to play great onstage but you have to give them a little help to get onstage because something terrible is happening or they’re sick or it’s just a bad week. It’s also important to say to each other, “Wow, that was really beautiful.” Of course, it’s unstated always. We wouldn’t be playing together if we didn’t adore each other’s playing. But it’s nice to hear.