Around the world with forty fingers, ‘Salut Salon’ 유쾌한 그녀들, ‘살뤼 살롱’이 떴다

Photos by Seoul International Muscic Festival 2014

바이올리니스트 안젤리카 바흐만, 아이리스 지그프리트가 주축이 되어 2000년 독일 함부르크에서 결성된 코믹 콰르텟 ‘살뤼 살롱.’ 클래식메들리, 팝, 샹송, 민속음악 등을 곁들여 재해석한 크로스오버 실내악을 화려한 무대매너와 고난도의 기교로 선보이는 그녀들의 무대는 음악적으로 완벽하고 마법처럼 아름답다.

그녀들은 바흐와 레이 찰스, 모차르트와 피아졸라, 브람스와 핑크팬더를 자유자재로 다루며, 클래식이 주는 감동에 대중성을 더해 독일국영신문 ‘디 벨트’가 인정한 독일 최고의 문화사절단으로 평가 받을 만큼 실력을 인정받았다.

또한 독일 함부르크 탈리아 극장에서 열렸던 그녀들의 새로운 프로그램이 공연 3주간 전석 매진을 기록하기도 했으며 ‘살뤼 살롱’의 공연 영상은 폭발적인 유투브 조회수를 기록하며 그녀들의 존재를 확실하게 각인시켰다. 서울국제음악제 2014에 참석한 유쾌하지만 진지한 그녀들을 컬쳐엠매거진이 만났다.

Around the world with forty fingers, ‘Salut Salon.’ They were hailed by the arts section of German national newspaper DIE WELT in May 2008 as one of the most successful German “cultural exports” – and with good reason: founded in Hamburg in 2000 by Angelika Bachmann(violin) and Iris Siegfried(violin and voice) “Salut Salon” has taken the art of crossover to chamber music in a virtuoso manner and added to the brilliantly developed mix of classic, pop, chanson, and folk, an absolutely unique stage performance: musical perfection with magical charm.

Their classical competence did not just come out of nowhere. Angelika Bachmann’s special musical gift was noticed early and as a child the senate of the City of Hamburg released her from normal schooling so that she could devote herself entirely to playing the violin. At seven she performed solo with the Hamburg Symphonic, appeared on television, and consequently won numerous 1st prizes in the prestigious German competition for young musicians “Jugend Musiziert”. Roland Greutter, first concertmaster of the NDR Symphony Orchestra, Germany’s national radio orchestra, oversaw the musical education of the multi-talented Angelika, who later proceeded with curricula in German studies and philosophy.

Iris Siegfried also earned her musical laurels at various young musician competitions, honed her singing talents in a number of Hamburg choirs and a-cappella groups and took, in addition to her musical education, a degree in law and a further study course at the Hamburg College of Music and Theatre to qualify as arts manager. When not on the road with SALUT SALON, she works as a lawyer in a Hamburg law office.

The quartet is completed by alternating line-ups: Sonja Lena Schmid or Frederike Dany on cello, and Anne von Twardowski or Jennifer Rüth on piano, all of whom are classically trained musicians with their own careers in the international concert business. Thus the exquisite ensemble juggles masterfully with Bach and Ray Charles, Mozart and Piazzola, Brahms and the “Pink Panther8 0, transforms the concert podium, now into a varieté stage, now into a puppet theatre, while proving time and again, that music which moves people needs no genre labelling.

As a sideline, in addition to their quartet concerts, Angelika Bachmann and Iris Siegfried also lead the “Cool Strings”, a children’s and youth orchestra, which they founded in 1996, and were subsequently awarded the “Inventio 2004” prize as the most innovative music projects in Germany by the German president Johannes Rau, and in addition with whom they have worked together with the music school of Achupallas, the poverty-stricken quarter of the Chilean city Vina del Mar. In Hamburg, the Thalia Theater has become something of a second home for them. At Germany’s renowned theatre of the spoken word they premier all their new programs for 3 weeks there to an always full house.