Changing Partners, all in 1 month

September will be a month of my "infidelity". I will change partners almost every week ! ............................................................................................................................................ September will start with the closing concert of the month-long program "Inspired by the Master" which is successfully invented and realize by ID_Camp. It is a company founded by Dewi Atmodjo and Irene Widharma, both are musicians with certain inquietude to better the music education in Indonesia. On Sunday, 6th of September I will perform my "Pieces of Cakes" duets with 6 selected students out of 33, but you will have a chance to hear them all play their solo works too, PLUS (this is very exciting) you will hear some winners from the Ananda Sukarlan Junior Award recently held in Makassar. This will be divided in 2 sessions, from 2-4 p.m., and 6-8 p.m., each session will feature around 16-18 (very) young and talented pianists. They have studied my music, directly learn from the composer and now they know that it is of utmost importance that they have their own ideas and interpretatins of the music. That's how music grows and stay alive! I will play one Rapsodia Nusantara in each session too (different for each session, obviously). Wanna enjoy a Sunday with your kids? Come then. It takes place at Teater Kecil, Taman Ismail Marzuki. ............................................................................................................................................ Starting 2 days later, I will perform some of my works based on literature, as well as my newest Rapsodia Nusantara numbers in 2 concerts in 1 week. It will be a kind of retrospective of the two aspects of my compositional activities that I focus on lately. For this event I've invited some of the best young Indonesian classical singers namely, soprano Mariska Setiawan, soprano coloratura Evelyn Merrelita and tenor Nikodemus Lukas. In addition, harpist Jessica Sudarta (17) will also feature in one of the concerts. The concerts will take place on September the 8th at Usmar Ismail Hall at 7 p.m. (in collaboration with the Embassy of Peru) and September the 13th at The Dharmawangsa Hotel at 4 p.m (in collaboration with the Rotary Club, Central Jakarta). Here are the details (I am copy pasting from the press release by the organizers) : ............................................................................................................................................ The Embassy of Peru has entrusted Ananda to make the celebration concert for the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between Indonesia and Peru. Naturally, the elements of both countries and cultures are present in this concert. Peru will invite its top baritone, Rudi Fernandez Cardenas and Indonesia will be represented by soprano coloratura Evelyn Merrelita. Not only that, there will be a World Premiere of a brand new musical work by Ananda, "Amistad" ("Friendship") for flute, piano and string quartet which contains an interesting and highly unique combination of Peruvian and Indonesian musical elements. The program includes works based on Peruvian poets Cesar Vallejo and Jose Luis Mejia, as well as Indonesian poets Sirikit Syah, Wiji Thukul as well as music by composer Mochtar Embut. The interesting element here is that the Peruvian baritone will sing some Indonesian songs, and the Indonesian soprano will sing some Peruvian (Spanish) songs, so this is really a symbol of exchange of cultural understanding. This unique concert will take place at the USMAR ISMAIL HALL (Jl. Rasuna Said, Kuningan), on Tuesday, September 8th at 7 p.m., preceded by a Peruvian typical cocktail. ............................................................................................................................................ Ananda will play for the first time in Indonesia his three brand new numbers of the highly virtuosic Rapsodia Nusantara which will be one of the major attractions for the event. Ananda and friends will also present the transformation of great masterpieces of literature to music, such as "La Ronde" (from the famous poem by Sitor Situmorang), Darkness and My Lover (on "The Sleepers" by Walt Whitman) as well as poems by Didik Siswantono, Sapardi Djoko Damono, Bernard Batubara and Adimas Immanuel. The best of Indonesia's younger generation singers are represented here: winners of the National Vocal Competition "Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan" Mariska Setiawan (soprano) and Nikodemus Lukas (tenor), both in their early 20s. Mariska & Niko will also perform famous classical works such as O Mio Babbino Caro (from the opera Gianni Schicchi (1918), music by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano) and La Donna e Mobile (from the opera Rigoletto (1851), music by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo). ............................................................................................................................................ This concert is a fundraising event for the charities which Rotary Club Jakarta Sentral supports. It will take place at the Bimansena Club at Dharmawangsa, Jalan Dharmawangsa Raya No 23, Kebayoran Baru , on Sunday, September 13th at 4 p.m. As the theme of the concert is "Tea with Ananda", the event will start with “High Tea” commencing at 3.30 p.m. The capacity of the venue is limited to 150 seats. ............................................................................................................................................ These series of concerts might be the ones that give me the most satisfaction, since I admire each and every one of my partners. From good musicians, each with their own personalities however weird, they inspire me, and I learn a lot from them. Yeah yeah, including those kids who perform with me at the "Inspired by the Master". I believe in young people, since I learn a lot from my daughter since she was very small. They have their own way of looking at this world, and that is very stimulating and reinvigorating for me. And the future of classical music in Indonesia is in their (small) hands! (photo, from l. to r : Mariska Setiawan, Jessica Sudarta, Nikodemus Lukas)