Worldly, award-winning violinist to perform Sunday

At a place like IU’s Jacobs School of Music, it is usually safe to assume that many of the people wandering the hallways are talented and accomplished. \nIn a field that requires specific talent, years of meticulous practice, patience, nerves of steel and a healthy dose of bravado, it might be surprising that one of the school’s most accomplished current students is an unassuming, soft-spoken young woman with a broad, addictive smile.\nBloomington audiences will have the chance to hear this woman, violinist Frederieke Saeijs, in recital at 6 p.m. Sunday in Auer Concert Hall.\nSaeijis was born in the Netherlands – the second of eight children. At the age of 7, she persuaded her parents that she needed to play the violin. She had been asking since age 4. After five years of studies, she entered the Royal Conservatory at The Hague, where she ultimately received a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music. During that time, she met Jacobs School of Music violin professor Mauricio Fuks. \n“It was an instinctive decision to come study with professor Fuks at Indiana University,” Saeijs said. “And I haven’t looked back.” \nIn October 2005, after one year of studies with Fuks, Frederieke won the first Grand Prix-Academie des Beaux-Arts at the prestigious International Jacques Thibaud-Marguerite Long Competition in Paris. \nWinning the Jacques Thibaud Competition sent Saeijs on two years of recitals and solo engagements in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Scotland, Switzerland and the U.S. \nOn Saeijis’ Sunday program is the Ciaccona from the Partita in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, a sonata by Maurice Ravel and Alban Berg’s \nViolin Concerto. \n“They are all my favorites,” Saeijs said.\nDedicated “to the memory of an angel,” Saeijs finds the Berg concerto especially touching. It was written after the death of Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler - wife of composer Gustav Mahler, architect Walter Gropius and novelist Franz Werfel, successively. It was also a requiem of sorts for the composer, who died before its premiere. Saeijs won the Thibaud Competition with this concerto and performed it publicly eight times – with five orchestras, in four countries. Accompanying Saejis in Sunday’s recital will be pianists David Hughes and Benjamin Kammerer. \nSaejis is currenlty under concert management in the Netherlands and Germany but is still looking for an international manager. \n“I spend a lot of my time in front of the computer doing administrative things, such as booking flights. It’s tiring,” Saeijs said. “But then I can go play the violin. I never get tired of playing; I could practice 24 hours a day. Playing music is an endless search and experiment – what to do differently each time. The most satisfying thing is that you can’t ever reach perfection... but you do get a little closer each time.” \nIf not music, then what? \n“I think if I didn’t play the violin, I would do something dealing with people, language and communication,” Saeijs said. “Having seven siblings was some of the best education in communication that one could have. But I can’t really imagine not playing the violin. I want to combine performing and teaching as a career. It is extremely satisfying to work with people who share the same passion.”