Salerno-Sonnenberg to perform at UCLA

  UCLA Performing Arts Nadja
Salerno-Sonnenberg (center), a recent winner of the Avery
Fisher Prize, joins Brazilian guitarists Sergio
Assad (left) and Odair Assad in a
performance at Royce Hall this Saturday.

By Aphrodite Manousos
Daily Bruin Contributor

Best known for her dramatic performance style, world-renowned
violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg takes center stage on Nov. 10 at
Royce Hall. She will be displaying her dynamic performance skills
alongside her label mates, the classical guitar duo the Assad
Brothers.

The performance will be based on a collection of Gypsy-inspired
folk tunes that appeared on a 1999 CD release.

World renowned violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg traces back
her deep love of music, and eventual career choice, to the unending
flow of musical talent and appreciation in her home growing up.

“I grew up in a very music loving family. My grandmother
listened to old Neapolitan stuff,” she said. “My mother
was a classical pianist (and) my grandfather was a trumpet player
… my brother was deep into Led Zeppelin and things like that, and
I was playing the fiddle.”

Salerno-Sonnenberg considers opera to be her biggest influence.
Her grandfather had a great love for the art form, and he was the
one that ultimately introduced it to her.

Her interests have expanded greatly, though, from the classical
style in which she was first trained. Her latest collaboration with
the Assad brothers illustrates her eclectic taste. She discussed
how Sergio Assad traced the Gypsy roots in eastern Europe and
picked up the folk tunes that had been handed down from generation
to generation.

“(Assad) put together these amazing, incredibly difficult
but sensual, very sophisticated arrangements of these tunes,”
Salerno-Sonnenberg said.

This constantly evolving artist recently found an interest in
the Celtic fiddle. She plans to master this art form, by attending
Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camp, more for her own pleasure
than for the purposes of performing the style of music for
audiences.

As far as her many collaborations and the direction of her music
in the future, Salerno-Sonnenberg feels that passivity and patience
are key: instead of having to go out and search for work, the work
always seems to find her.

She said that she did not plan to branch out and work with
different artists when she first began playing; it simply fell into
her life and she felt that it was the right thing to do at that
time.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s musical pilgrimage continues to
the delight of her fans and her own avaricious need for musical
expansion and fulfillment.

“I had been asked to do things a long time ago and I just
never considered them because I played classical and that was
that,” Salerno-Sonnenberg said.

“But this just fell in the right time in my life and I
started to do it and started to realize that I could do it pretty
well and really, really enjoy it. And when I come back on my bread
and butter it seems like it’s new, like I never played it
before,” she continued.

Of all her albums, the one she feels best represents the variety
of her abilities is “Humoresque,” named after a 1946
Warner Brothers film for which Franz Waxman composed several
tracks. She believes it is the one album that successfully combines
pieces such as the First Movement of Lalo’s “Symphonie
Espagnole,” and Waxman’s “Karma
Fantasy.”

Guessing the future trajectory of this fervent artist is a
difficult task, since she herself foresees no path. She hopes to
someday perform with Martha Arthridge, a legendary pianist whom she
greatly admires. Salerno-Sonnenberg described Arthridge as an all
encompassing artist.

“I relate very well to (Arthridge). And I am positive we
would play phenomenally well together,” she said. “I
almost don’t want to plan or try to guide where I want it to
go. I love where it is now. I love the variety.”

MUSIC: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg performs with the Assad Duo at
Royce Hall, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. For ticketing information, contact the
Central Ticketing Office at (310) 825-2101.