"If you don't bite, then be quiet"
interview
R
Rachel Einarsson4 min read|5. July 2024
The Argentine-born conductor Saul Zaks, who lives here in Denmark, is hard to get a complete grip on. He has an energy that few have and such an enormous wealth of ideas that one has to give up on getting an overview.
I have known Saul for many years and played concerts together with him, and I think that his lively personality, South American drive and extraordinary sense of enterprise deserve a mention.
Right now Saul Zaks is in the news with the release of the CD ”Retrato del Carl Nielsen vol. 1” with the Argentine orchestra Ensamble Tango XXI. It comes as a marking of the fact that Den Danske Kirke i Buenos Aires can celebrate its 100th anniversary this year.
Read on and meet an unusual man and international conductor, who has paved the way for many Danish musicians to the best stages in the world, has tango music as his heartbeat, and believes that we Danes should bring out more of our Viking style again.
Saul Zaks lives in the centre of Aarhus. As central as it is almost possible to get. His flat is small, but cosily furnished with a few select things that bear witness to his Argentine origins and international roots. He prepares a good, strong coffee, and we sit down on the top of the building, where there is a shared terrace with a view over the city.
Outlook is, incidentally, entirely characteristic of Saul. He was born in Argentina and moved to Israel in 1977 at the age of 17. There he later met his girlfriend and subsequent wife from Denmark. She worked on a kibbutz, and after trying things out a little both in Israel and Denmark the couple ended up settling in Denmark. The couple are now divorced, and together they have two sons, who likewise live in Aarhus and, incidentally, also work with art and music.
”I have a fantastic life”, Saul Zaks observes when he talks about his family. The gratitude lies just beneath the surface. But the music also gives him reason to be grateful. Saul Zaks is trained in conducting at soloist class level in Jerusalem, and for a number of years he taught music theory, conducting and music history at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium. Later he switched to the job as conductor of Syddansk Universitets Kammerkor in Odense. ”I started with the choir in the early 00s”, he says.
Saul Zaks lives in the centre of Aarhus. As central as it is almost possible to get. His flat is small, but cosily furnished with a few select things that bear witness to his Argentine origins and international roots. He prepares a good, strong coffee, and we sit down on the top of the building, where there is a shared terrace with a view over the city.
Outlook is, incidentally, entirely characteristic of Saul. He was born in Argentina and moved to Israel in 1977 at the age of 17. There he later met his girlfriend and subsequent wife from Denmark. She worked on a kibbutz, and after trying things out a little both in Israel and Denmark the couple ended up settling in Denmark. The couple are now divorced, and together they have two sons, who likewise live in Aarhus and, incidentally, also work with art and music.
”I have a fantastic life”, Saul Zaks observes when he talks about his family. The gratitude lies just beneath the surface. But the music also gives him reason to be grateful. Saul Zaks is trained in conducting at soloist class level in Jerusalem, and for a number of years he taught music theory, conducting and music history at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium. Later he switched to the job as conductor of Syddansk Universitets Kammerkor in Odense. ”I started with the choir in the early 00s”, he says.
”I have always had a thing about not being able to stand still. And there were opportunities here in Denmark”, he recalls about the beginning of this millennium, which also became the start of a number of years with many projects at home.
It is apparently never difficult for Saul Zaks to find inspiration for projects; from his time in Jerusalem he particularly remembers one of his teachers. ”Mendi Rodan (1929-2009) was my teacher in Jerusalem. And he was also a Holocaust survivor. He said: “Everything that does not exist can be created”, says Saul Zaks and sounds as if he quite agrees.
The list of events that Saul has created can indeed become quite long, if everything is to be included. We must make do with an extract in this piece.
As mentioned, he got Syddansk Universitets Kammerkor going, which is one of the first things he created in Denmark.
He later established the project orchestra Syddansk Universitets Symfoniorkester, now Syddanske Studerendes Symfoniorkester, which he also conducts himself. In 2014 the orchestra took Carnegie Hall, New York, by storm, while the actor Viggo Mortensen took care of the orchestra's travel expenses. Two years later the orchestra was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the category Best Tango Album. This happened with the album ”Sax To Tango”, recorded together with the tango specialists Julio Botti and Pablo Ziegler. The former is a big name within the genre Nuevo Tango, which he gives voice to via his saxophone, while Pablo Ziegler has a past as Astor Piazzolla's pianist.
Nothing less.
Read the rest of the interview and Saul Zaks' thoughts on the new album at https://www.klassiskbureau.com/hvis-du-ikke-bider-s-ti-stille