Eroica Trio back in Eureka

Cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio has followed through on her promise.

Sant'Ambrogio fell in love with Eureka Springs when she and the other two members of the Eroica Trio (pianist Erika Nickrenz and then-violinist Susie Park) played a concert there in June 2012, part of what was supposed to become an annual classical music festival that never spawned a sequel.

The Eroica Trio

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Eureka Springs Auditorium, 36 S. Main St., Eureka Springs. Pianist Erika Nickrenz, violinist Sara Parkins and cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio will play works by J.S. Bach, Astor Piazzolla, Paul Schoenfield and Johannes Brahms.

Tickets: $30, $10 for students 16 and younger.

theauditorium.org

"The whole time I was there, I just loved the town," she said in a 2014 interview in advance of a recital she played in the town with pianist Robert Koenig. "It was really idyllic and [with] its placement in the region, it just seemed like the perfect place to bring people from all the different towns around to experience great music together.

"Eureka Springs seems to have this great classic vibe to it, but it's very modern as well. So I just thought, 'Wow, this is a place that would be so wonderful to create a little jewel of a music festival.'"

That recital was a fundraiser for the "little jewel of a music festival" that Sant'Ambrogio is now in the process of creating, which she calls "Eureka Springs Into Music."

As a forerunner of that project, which she plans to launch as a week-long program in late February and early March in Northwest Arkansas schools, she's bringing the trio back for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Eureka Springs Auditorium, 36 S. Main St., Eureka Springs.

The program includes the "Chaconne" from the Violin Partita No. 2 in d minor by J.S. Bach, arranged for the trio by pop performer Anne Dudley of the rock group Art of Noise; Oblivion and "Otono" from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla; Cafe Music by Paul Schoenfield; and the Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, op.87, by Johannes Brahms.

Sant'Ambrogio, who didn't recall what the trio played in 2012, was surprised to learn that the program is pretty close to that one -- it included the entire Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and one of Brahms' other trios, the Piano Trio No. 1 in b minor, op.8.

Even so, the sound for this concert will differ, because "it's a new violinist, so it'll be a totally different story," she says. Sara Parkins, Sant'Ambrogio's childhood friend and Curtis Institute roommate, replaced Park in fall 2012.

The Bach arrangement is an addition to the trio repertoire that particularly excites Sant'Ambrogio.

"That one is fantastic," she says. "I love playing that piece. I'm so incredibly lucky -- Ann Dudley, the arranger, gave the opening melody to the cello. I nearly called her up in London and said, 'I and every cellist on the face of the planet thank you from the bottom of my heart!'"

The piece is a staple of the solo violin repertoire, but has been a favorite for arrangers and composers for solo and groups of instrumentalists, Sant'Ambrogio notes, including Ferrucio Busoni's arrangement for piano and Leopold Stokowski's version for full orchestra.

"Bach's architecture is so powerful. When you hear the trio version -- I've had violinists tell me, 'I can't imagine how I ever played this all by myself,'" she says. "When I play Bach, I'm so glad to be alive." She has, of course, recorded and played all six of Bach's solo cello suites, most recently in a Carnegie Hall concert in March.

She is gearing her "Eureka Springs Into Music" project (eurekaspringsintomusic.com) when it's easiest to get into area schools. "International soloists" (she's not yet naming them on the record because contracts have yet to be signed, but she has a few fairly famous folks on her dream roster) will take part in "tailor-made" mini-concerts, presentations and workshops.

"No matter what, they're going to be performers I'm performing with, who I know, who are great performers and great communicators," Sant'Ambrogio says.

"It'll be geared toward getting [kids] excited about the music and bringing them into the world of it so they can see how passionate and emotional it can be and how amazingly healing and cathartic it can be, and what a wonderful tool it can be for you as a human being to achieve happiness and solace and joy."

The project will also involve a competition for instrumentalists up to age 18 (or high school seniors). Sant'Ambrogio and her colleagues will pick a winner -- or possibly two if there's a sufficiently wide diversity of instruments involved -- who will get some coaching and then perform a work in concert with the pros.

"The winner, or winners, will get to perform on one of the concerts with the international soloists, a piece that we will choose that we think will give them the ability to excel," Sant'Ambrogio says, "to be able to soak up what it's like to be a professional musician, rehearsing and performing a piece."

Competition will be open primarily to youngsters in Northwest Arkansas -- "they'd have to be able to get themselves to Eureka Springs," Sant'Ambrogio explains. The process involves recording a performance -- any kind of piece, "whatever they feel shows them off at the highest level," she says, with a five-minute limit -- and uploading it to YouTube by Jan. 1.

Sant'Ambrogio is collaborating on the project with the city of Eureka Springs and the Eureka Springs Arts Council. She's deliberately starting small and plans to build it slowly. It's possible, down the line, that with some of the artists she's approaching, that the project can connect with an area orchestra "to make it financially more feasible" to bring them in.

However, "We don't want to get too big. I don't want to grow beyond what the community can support," she says. "Many places have had serial one-off festivals; people expand way too quickly and then can't support it. And they leave a bad taste in the mouth of the community."

Style on 08/25/2015

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