“Coming to school with your lunch in a paper bag instead of a Partridge Family lunch box was a real stigma when I was in grade school,” says violin superstar Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. “To make matters worse, while all the other kids pulled out bologna or peanut butter on Wonder Bread–many with the crusts carefully cut off by their mothers–I pulled out a long Sicilian peppers-and-egg sandwich, dripping with olive oil.
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Being unusual has always been the norm for Salerno-Sonnenberg, now 26, who has taken the generally quiet world of classical music by storm with her staunch and uncompromising individualism. While much of the media attention she has received has concentrated on her unusual concert attire (a hot pink, studded jumpsuit, for example), her wild performance mannerisms (hair flinging in her face, feet stomping, facial grimaces ranging from tears to ecstasy), and her unique personal habits and tastes (a passion for baseball, Godzilla, cigarettes, beer, and opera, among others)–her extraordinary music making often goes almost unnoticed.
Chicago audiences will have a chance this week to “experience” music with Salerno-Sonnenberg in her first downtown recital as part of the Merrill Lynch Great Performers Series at Orchestra Hall, a program that will include sonatas by Beethoven and Debussy. “I love each of the pieces,” says Salerno-Sonnenberg. “They are conventional pieces that will probably be played unconventionally.”
These days, the brilliant playing of the young Juilliard dropout is being described with superlatives not used for a violinist since Heifetz. She has also just released her first album on Angel/EMI records, playing works for violin and orchestra by Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens, and Massenet–the first album in what promises to be extraordinary recording career.
