Oberlin Portrait: Nuiko Wadden

PHOTO CREDIT: AL FUCHS

At around 8:40 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, Nuiko Wadden began to have fun.

Roughly 20 minutes later, the final chords of Wadden’s sparkling interpretation of Alberto Ginastera’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra, with the Oberlin Orchestra, brought her Finney Chapel audience to its feet. That interpretation also brought the soloist herself back from the wings for five ovation-fueled bows.

Wadden, a senior from Wilmette, Illinois, describes the experience with the laid-back warmth of a performer enjoying the afterglow. "I performed the Ginastera on my junior recital and I’ve entered several competitions with it," she says. "During the second movement of Sunday’s performance, I just started to have fun."

The idea of music as unadulterated fun surfaces several times while Wadden recounts her life in music.

Describing her concept for Ginastera’s richly textured concerto – a piece that she has played throughout the U.S. — Wadden includes a slice from that salacious underbelly of music history:

"Two weeks before the premiere, the Philadelphia Orchestra hadn’t received the third movement or the cadenza. Ginastera’s secretary answered an exasperated phone call from an orchestra representative, explaining that Mr. Ginastera required more time; he’d just begun an affair with a new mistress. To me the third movement and the cadenza are about that mistress. You can hear the excitement."

A harpist from age 7, Wadden decided to pursue music exclusively relatively late; she came to Oberlin as a double-degree student intent upon also pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry.

"I spent the summer following my freshman year in Maine with a former teacher of my own teacher, Yolanda Kondonassis. I realized then that the harp had always been a part of my life, and I never want it to play a minor role. Since then, I’ve never found it too difficult to focus."

Why the harp? "This instrument is wonderful because there are so few harpists; if we don’t play it, no one else is going to. Also, my mother loves the instrument, although she’s mainly an opera fan. She has had season tickets to the Chicago Lyric Opera every year since 1966. She and I even worked as opera ‘supers’ when I was little – I was a bird-child in The Magic Flute. My dream job is the harpist position in that opera orchestra."

Wadden’s national honors already raise her above the crowd of eventual contenders for that or any job. Besides the Oberlin Concerto Competition, her résumé features a win in the American String Teachers Association Competition, as well as honors in the American Harp Association Competition and the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition.

Next year will find Wadden in pursuit of a Master of Music degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. "I’m excited, but it will be strange," she says. "I love winter and will miss snow down in Houston. I’ll also miss Oberlin. This is a wonderful place for a musician who has lots of sides to her personality."

A Conservatory Portrait Conversation with Nuikko Wadden:

What inspired you to become a musician? What keeps you inspired on discouraging days?
I made the final decision because music is just fun. I’ve had such a good time playing the harp. And I love when an ensemble comes together. I’ve had incredible chamber music experiences here at Oberlin — especially with the Debussy Trio for Harp, Flute and Viola and with a multi-media project I did in December. Collaborative musicians share intense relationships that aren’t even necessarily social relationships.

What is the most memorable performance you have seen and why?
I heard Yo Yo Ma play the six Bach Cello Suites in two concerts at Tanglewood. He performed in a hall with the back open to the outdoors but made the huge space seem intimate.

If you could perform with any musician, living or dead, who would it be? What would you perform?
I would perform the two-harp and voice arrangement of DeFalla’s Seven Spanish Folksongs with Victoria de Los Angeles, whose voice I absolutely love. She’s even better in chamber music than in opera.

If you could master another instrument, what would it be?
Either voice or piano. I don’t have a voice; it’s hereditary. I’ve tried to sing, but the sound of me trying to sing in parts is horrific. It must be amazing to carry your instrument with you everywhere. Pianists get to work with amazingly expressive range and beautiful literature. But even looking at these other instruments, I’m glad that I do one thing well.

If you could not be a musician, what other profession would you choose? What profession would you definitely NOT choose?
I could see myself as a chemist. It’s challenging material, but I liked the work when chemistry was still one of my majors. I definitely would not be a grade-school teacher; I’d lose my temper constantly.

What do you listen to for inspiration? In your free time?
I don’t listen to symphonic classical music, but I do listen to a lot of opera. Also I listen to lots of Cuban music, like the Buena Vista Social Club musicians and the offshoots of that group.

What do you like to read?
I’m on an autobiography kick right now. I’ve been reading the memoirs of several female Asian writers, for example, Sara Suleri’s Meatless Days. There is something compelling about the personal narrative, and Asia has been an important place in my life since my family lived there occasionally when I was little. We still have friends there. I’m named after my parents’ next-door-neighbor from one period when my dad taught public health in Japan.

What are three words that best describe you?
Focused, prickly, and happy.