Eroica: A Surprise Package

The Eroica Trio, young and glamorous enough in evening gowns to momentarily transform a concert stage into a fashion runway, can read the audiences’ faces.

“We’re in a field that traditionally has been dominated by men,” says cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio. “So no matter how open-minded people are, they’re always surprised when we walk out. We don’t represent the preconceived image of what they’re expecting.”

Glamour has its value, she says, but it’s a double-edged sword.

“What’s good about it is we feel that we have to prove ourselves at every single concert, which gives added intensity to our performances. On the other hand, we have to play a piece the best it’s ever been played.”

Otherwise, she says, they’ll get extra criticism.

“And frankly, I really enjoy putting on beautiful gowns. It’s part of getting yourself psyched up for a performance.”

The trio--cellist Sant’Ambrogio, violinist Adela Pena and pianist Erika Nickrenz--will play Mozart, Shostakovich and Brahms on Saturday, in its Founders Hall debut at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. The concert opens the center’s chamber music series.

Technically, the three became the Eroica in 1986 while students at the Juilliard School in New York. But they had been playing together for years. Nickrenz and Pena met at a music school when they were 9. Later, Pena and Sant’Ambrogio attended the same music camp. Nickrenz studied with Sant’Ambrogio’s grandmother.

*

When all three turned up at Juilliard, it was natural to get together as a group. “It was really like falling in love, like coming home,” Sant’Ambrogio says.

“Music really deepens and strengthens a friendship,” Pena adds. “It’s incredible. You just reach another level of relating or bonding.”

The trio is the main focus of their lives.

“Basically, we’re on the road half of the time,” Pena says. “A couple of husbands are involved, and a dog and many houseplants.” (Pena is married to John Whitney, a rock and pop guitarist who also teaches; Nickrenz is married to Karl Herman, principal clarinetist of the New Jersey Symphony.)

For all the years of friendship, rehearsals don’t always go smoothly.

“Things can get pretty heated,” Sant’Ambrogio says. “But what’s so great about trios [is] you have an odd number. There is a majority. No one is allowed to abstain. Two against one, that’s that. You don’t have two-on-two, as can happen in a quartet, which can argue for hours.

“But we have a rule. It’s kind of funny. Maybe it’s a female thing. Majority rules, unless the minority is incredibly upset about it. Then we reconsider.”

*

But unanimity ruled when it came time for the musicians to choose their name.

“We had thought of stupid names like ‘Algonquin’ or ‘Gotham’ because of New York,” says pianist Nickrenz. “One was ‘Eroica.’ ‘Florestan’ was another. But we thought that sounded like a toothpaste and nobody would get it.” (Florestan is the imprisoned hero of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” “Eroica,” the name of his revolutionary Third Symphony.)

Pena picks up the story:

“Sara and I were out of town. Some presenters for an upcoming concert were pushing Erika to come up with something because they had to print the program. ‘Eroica’ had the least amount of complaints. We’ve stuck with it ever since.

“Now we realize we absolutely love the name. It means ‘heroic,’ but it’s a very mellifluous word and it ends in an ‘a,’ just like all of our names, so it’s very appropriate for us. We also like to think of our playing style as very bold and daring, full of risks and energy.”

They guarantee those hallmarks partly through their rehearsal strategy, taking turns playing two at a time while the third person goes into the hall to listen.

“Between the three of us, we can get a sense of the surprising results, which are sometimes completely different from what you hear on stage,” Nickrenz says.

*

That’s because halls vary so much in construction and acoustics.

“If it’s not a wooden stage, it’s just hell for Sara,” the pianist continues. “A wooden stage, with the end-pin of the cello, acts as a resonance chamber. But a linoleum-style floor or carpeting, that can be awful.

“Of course, I have to play on a completely new, strange piano everywhere I go. I cross my fingers and say, ‘I’ll be nice to you, if you’ll be nice to me.’ ”

Nickrenz says that, despite the old story, pianists don’t pencil messages inside pianos to warn their peers about any technical problems with the instrument.

“I’ve never seen them,” she says. “Sometimes we sign the piano on the inside. I would love to find a secret message. That would be a kick. Sometimes you want to leave nasty notes for the tuner.”

*

All of their preparation is designed to “take the audience on a journey and feel at end we’ve touched as much of their souls as possible,” Sant’Ambrogio says. “When we walk off the stage, we want to feel we’ve wrung our souls dry of every emotion, technique and aspect of musicianship.”

Toward that end, their programs often cover a wide range of territory. The Founders Hall concert is “an extremely conservative” one, Nickrenz says. “Of course, they’re some of the great masterworks. We’re thrilled to play them. But it’s not a typical Eroica program. Usually, we have something more offbeat. We might sneak a little Gershwin in there possibly, if the audience wants.”

* The Eroica Trio will play music by Mozart, Shostakovich and Brahms on Saturday at Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. $24. (714) 556-2787.