miércoles, 18 de marzo de 2009

Flirting fingers and a desperate housewife

One thing I notice about the public of a piano concert. Everybody wanted to have a seat at the left side of the hall, "where I can see the fingers of Ananda". That's what the majority of the people told Chendra, my manager, when they reserved the tickets for my only solo piano recital in Jakarta this year. (By the way, the last time I did another solo piano recital in that city was in 2006. Time flies ! At that time it was at the (still) beautiful old building Gedung Kesenian. The director(ress) was just appointed then, in 2004. Since then, the building and its management became a big mess, no more audiences, and therefore no more concerts these days (I saw in their Calendar of this (or last?) month,and there were only 3 events in a month). The most important artists of Indonesia don't want to perform there anymore. I'm not important, but I also don't feel like going there again under this management.)
Now I am back home, writing my pocket opera, "IBU". It is commissioned by Jakarta Opera to be performed in Jakarta on June 7th this year. The libretto is based on a monologue by Seno Gumira Ajidarma, and it is a sequel to "Mengapa Kau Culik Anak Kami". So, since I will write it only for one soprano and nobody else, I am thinking it to be accompanied by a very small group of musicians. In fact, only 2 : piano (myself) and a flute doubling piccolo. That's the idea of "pocket" opera : an opera which can be carried easily, toured easily. I am happy that my friend, the excellent soprano Aning Katamsi has agreed to do it.
I am trying to do something terrifying in this opera. I mean, terrifying to myself. I am going to write lots of "arias" , but all of them will be without a finishing cadence. In fact, even sometimes without reaching a climax. The idea is to evoke desperation of a mother whose husband and son has gone. No hope is fulfilled. It is all dark, sadness and gloom. And anger.
I wonder how people will react with arias which just start and do not continue. Look, the whole idea of the original text is not meant to entertain. Seno Gumira wrote a very dark monologue. So, I treat this as one BIG aria, from beginning to end. Will I succeed ? I dunno. But one has to try things at least once in their lifetime.

domingo, 15 de febrero de 2009

Who's afraid of the number 5000? (More facts about facebook)

This is the continuation of my entry about facebook earlier this year.

Last week, seeing that the number of friends in "Ananda Sukarlan's friends" group at facebook is reaching about 4.500, I had the idea of giving a gift to the 5000th friend. The gift would simply be a free ticket to my solo piano concert at Goethe Haus, Jakarta on the 4th of March*. Both Chendra and me have discovered that the number of friends grows approximately 40 to 80 every day in that group, so I guess that in about a week from that date the group will reach 5000.

But now, instead of celebrating the 5000th, it turned out to be a disaster. A second disaster, to be precise. First of all, last year my personal fb could not accept anymore friends due to its maximum number, 5000. Now, the group (whose number is supposed to be unlimited) has said that fb CANNOT send messages to the members since the number has surpassed 5000. In fact, since a few weeks ago every time that Chendra or me sent a message to all members of the group, fb did it with a note "Your message is delayed since you are sending to a large group of people", and we realized that it took 2 to 3 days to reach the destinations.

So we made a quick decision of making another group, "Ananda Sukarlan's friends 2" (I can't believe that I am emulating Harry Potter, Indiana Jones or the dinosaurs at Jurassic Park) . The problem now is to get my friends at "1" to move to "2" . Even as owners and administrators of the group, we cannot decide who enters or who leaves the group. We can just invite people, or report people if they violate anything in the group, but it's all up to the fb big brothers to do it. So, may I ask you, friends, if you are a member of "1" to "move" to "2" ? Please make sure you MOVE, (which means that you get out of group "1") and not just be another member of 2, because then you are giving more problems !

Oh, some friends have suggested that we create a Fan Page for me. Now, that's against my will, since I don't feel I have fans. I am not a celebrity, I am simply a composer. There is nothing celebrational or glamorous in putting those beansprouts on music paper on a table.


* My concert at Goethe Haus will be on Wednesday, 4th of March at 7.30 pm. Its program triply celebrates the 200th year of Joseph Haydn's death, 200th year of Felix Mendelssohn's birth and 60th year of Jaya Suprana (one of Indonesia's prominent composer)'s birth. I will also give the first performance of my Rapsodia Nusantara no.3 .. if you wonder about no.2 , I will write about it in this blog later this (or next) week (or month) ..

martes, 3 de febrero de 2009

Bersua dengan AMIR PASARIBU

(This is an article of mine which appeared at an Indonesian e-newspaper 2 years ago).

Suatu hari datang satu e-mail dari seseorang bernama Nurman Pasaribu yang ditujukan ke saya. Sungguh suatu surprise! Ternyata Beliau adalah putra dari komponis yang selama ini karya-karyanya saya kagumi dan sering dimainkan, tetapi saya selalu mengira Beliau sudah meninggal (Amir Pasaribu lahir pada tahun1915). Nurman sendiri telah berkeluarga dan tinggal di Belanda. Dari Latifah Kodijat, seorang pengajar senior di Jakarta, beberapa tahun lalu saya mendapatkan banyak partitur dari Amir Pasaribu. Dua sonata untuk piano (yang no. 2 hanya bagian pertamanya saja yang partiturnya saya miliki), karya-karya kecil lainnya seperti The juggler's meeting, Puisi Bagor, Capung Kecimpung di Cikapundung dan Variasi Sriwijaya. Dari karya-karya tersebut, ada sekitar 5 karya yang saya terus mainkan di berbagai penjuru dunia, sedangkan yang lainnya tersimpan di perpustakaan saya karena banyak not-not yang salah kutip ataupun meragukan.

Sejak email pertama dari Nurman, saya kemudian banyak bertukar e-mail dengannya, juga dengan putrinya, Gonny Pasaribu. Kebetulan, bulan Desember lalu saya diundang oleh Medan Musik untuk menjadi juri Samick Piano Competition di Medan. Nurman langsung menganjurkan saya untuk menyempatkan diri berkunjung ke rumah Amir Pasaribu. "Datang saja", kata Nurman lewat telpon, "Tidak usah telpon dulu. Pappie (sebutannya untuk ayahnya) sudah di kursi roda, dan tidak pernah kemana-mana, dan pasti senang dikunjungi Ananda. Beliau sering menyebut nama anda." Ternyata, pernah ada satu artikel yang ditulis kritikus dan musikolog Bintang Prakarsa di satu harian di Indonesia yang menyebutkan bahwa saya adalah satu-satunya pianis Indonesia yang tetap memainkan karya-karyanya di luar negeri. Apa itu benar, saya sendiri tidak tahu. Yang saya tahu, ya itu tadi, saya selalu memainkan karya komponis dari negeri saya yang saya kira sudah masuk club yang saya bisa namakan "Dead Composers Society" yang anggota-anggotanya bisa disebut dari Beethoven, Bach, sampai Toru Takemitsu atau Mochtar Embut.

Jadilah hari Minggu pagi itu, setelah saya tiba di Medan hari sebelumnya, saya bersama teman & manager saya, Chendra, naik taxi dari hotel menuju ke Karya Wisata, alamat yang kami dapat dari Nurman. Rencananya kami hanya akan sebentar saja. Setelah agak berputar-putar Medan dan bertanya-tanya (saya sebenarnya cukup kaget karena orang Medan, termasuk para siswa/i musik, tidak mengenal namanya. Itulah nasib seorang seniman musik sastra di Indonesia!). Akhirnya kami tiba, dan mengetuk pintu. Tidak ada jawaban. Ketuk lagi. Sama saja. .... "Tuh, mungkin sedang ke gereja," kata Chendra. Saya tidak menyerah. Mengetuk lagi. Tidak ada reaksi. Kami kemudian berputar, ingin bertanya ke tetangga apa benar ini rumah Amir Pasaribu. Ketika kami sampai di pintu gerbang, tiba-tiba pintu rumah bergoyang-goyang. Tapi tidak terbuka! Situasi ini mungkin hanya memakan waktu satu menit, tapi rasanya lama sekali karena kami bingung, kok surealis banget! Akhirnya, pintu terbuka, dan kami jadi mengerti kenapa hal itu terjadi. Muncul seseorang tua di kursi roda, memakai kaos oblong putih dan sarung. Langsung saya datangi. "Pak Amir Pasaribu?" "Siapa anda?" teriaknya. "Saya Ananda Sukarlan, Pak." "Siapaaa?" "Ananda Sukarlan, seorang pianis, Pak.""Siapaaa?" Membaca situasi lebih cepat dari saya, Chendra mendekati telinganya, dan berteriak "Ananda Sukarlan Pak, pianis yang tinggal di Spanyol!""Ooooooh!" Kegembiraan terpancar di wajahnya yang tadinya kelihatan galak. Beliau langsung menyodorkan tangannya untuk bersalaman. "Ik ken jouw naam (saya tahu nama anda)!" dan setelah Chendra memperkenalkan dirinya juga, kami duduk dan mengobrol di teras.

Terus terang, saya selalu grogi bertemu dengan orang baru, apalagi ini seseorang yang saya selalu kagumi, senior, dan notabene sudah tuli. Saya membayangkan menit-menit keheningan pasti akan terjadi, di mana saya tidak tahu harus omong apa. Ternyata, pak Amir orangnya banyak bicara, dan antusias sekali. Beliau lebih fasih berbahasa Belanda, jadi akhirnya percakapan berganti bahasa. Chendra yang tidak mengerti satu kata pun jadi gelisah, dan akhirnya mengambil kamera. Ceklak, ceklek ... Daripada nganggur dan tidak mengerti!

Sambil mendengarkannya berbicara, saya mengamati fisiknya. Luar biasa sekali orang ini. Umurnya 92 tahun, karakternya yang kuat masih bersinar di wajahnya. Yang menarik perhatian saya adalah telinganya yang besar, yang mengingatkan saya ke komik Tintin tentang patung-patung bertelinga panjang di Pulau Paskah. Masih ada sangat sedikit rambut putih dipotong pendek sekali walaupun sebagian besar sudah botak, dan sudah ompong. Kelihatan sekali bahwa pak Amir adalah orang yang tidak doyan berkompromi, keras dan punya pendapat yang kokoh dan sulit dibengkokkan tentang banyak hal.

"Saya menderita Alzheimer", katanya. Wow, saya hampir tidak percaya. Banyak sekali yang Beliau masih ingat. "Gimana guru anda, Oey Tjong Lee?" tanyanya. "Sudah meninggal, Pak" (Tjong Lee adalah Rudy Laban, mantan guru saya di Jakarta sebelum saya meninggalkan tanah air). "Ooooh", kegetiran, seperti semua ekspresi yang dirasakannya, langsung terpancar kuat. Raut wajahnya memang ekspresif sekali. "Usianya masih sangat muda." Kemudian, Pak Amir juga menyebut tentang "Tisna" (alm. Ny. Charlotte Sutisna, yang ditahun 60-an sangat berdedikasi untuk memainkan karya-karyanya. Rekamannya dari banyak karyanya yang dibuat di RRI akan sangat membantu saya untuk merekam kembali karya-karya tersebut, kali ini dengan teknik digital yang tinggi dan mikrofon serta studio yang 100x lebih canggih dan betapa Beliau kehilangan setelah ia meninggal. "Kawan-kawan saya terdekat kini sudah meninggal. Itulah kalau orang bertahan sampai usia lanjut, jadinya kesepian." Saya jadi ingat pernah membaca bahwa Stravinsky, semakin lanjut usianya, karya-karyanya semakin banyak yang berjudul "In Memoriam". Sebut saja: I.M. Aldous Huxley, Dylan Thomas ... itu semua ditulisnya saat ia berusia sekitar 80 tahun.

Saya juga kaget Pak Amir tahu tentang Michael Jackson. "Musik jaman sekarang, tambah lama tambah jelek ("verschikelijk"). Itu bukan seni. Itu bikin masyarakat tambah tolol". Terus terang, saya ada setujunya dengan pendapat ini, walaupun tentu saja saya tidak setuju tentang Michael Jackson, terutama hasil karyanya sewaktu ia masih berkulit hitam di tahun 80-an. "Beethoven, Brahms, Bartok, sudah tidak ada lagi komponis-komponis seperti mereka zaman sekarang. Musik pop dan rock itu sudah tidak dapat disebut musik lagi". Wah, Pak, untungnya tidak sempat mengenal musik-musik avant-garde model Stockhausen dan Boulez; kalau musik pop saja sudah tidak bisa disebut musik, lalu musik avant-garde disebut apa???

Beliau banyak tahu tentang saya. Salah satu buktinya seperti di atas, Beliau mengetahui dengan siapa saja saya telah berguru. Satu anjurannya (yang tentu saja saya sudah turuti) adalah "Blijf buitenland" (tetaplah tinggal di luar negeri). "Di sini seniman tidak dihargai," ujarnya. Beliau juga menyayangkan banyak partiturnya yang tersebar dan hilang, karena sering pindah rumah dan juga rumahnya pernah kemasukan maling. Andaikan saja maling itu tahu betapa berharganya kertas-kertas yang dicurinya!

Sulit sekali untuk pamit. Beliau sangat menikmati kunjungan dari siapa pun. Senang mengobrol, dan yang diajak mengobrol pun ketagihan. Tapi akhirnya kami pun harus balik ke hotel. Yang jelas, saya sudah mendapatkan izinnya untuk merekam seluruh karya musiknya. Lebih dari izin, Beliau "lega bahwa musik saya ada di tangan yang baik" (dalam dunia piano, kalimat ini bisa diterjemahkan secara harafiah). Pertanyaan terakhir dari Beliau, "Kapan saya bisa dengar rekaman permainan kamu? Jangan lupa, saya tidak punya banyak waktu lagi." Saya hanya bisa menjawab "Iya, Pak" .... Dan pamit pulang.

Yang masih merupakan misteri untuk saya adalah mengapa Amir Pasaribu berhenti berkarya pada tahun 70-an, di saat Beliau berumur 60-an? Usia itu, untuk jaman sekarang, relatif muda untuk berhenti berkarya. Inspirasi kering? Motivasi kurang? Bagaimana pun, tidak seperti Jean Sibelius yang berhenti berkarya saat usia 50 tahun tapi hingga kini tetap beredar gossip-gossip bahwa ada karya-karya yang ditulis setelahnya (seperti Simfoni no. 8), dalam hal Amir Pasaribu cukup jelas. Beliau memang telah berhenti berkarya sejak lama. Sebetulnya yang saya lebih sayangkan adalah partitur-partitur yang hilang entah kemana. Sewaktu saya bilang bahwa putranya telah berhasil mengumpulkan sekitar 25 karya untuk piano, pak Amir berkata "Sebetulnya sangat lebih dari segitu. Tapi, ada di mana musik-musik itu, tidak ada yang tahu. Sudah, lupakan saja." Wah, maaf Pak, tidak bisa saya lupakan. Itu aset negara sebetulnya. Sayangnya, hanya beberapa orang saja yang sadar betapa bernilainya itu. Sayangnya, nilainya bukan berupa uang, dan kalau bukan uang, di abad 21 ini namanya bukan nilai .....

Ananda Sukarlan,
komponis & pianis.

viernes, 26 de diciembre de 2008

Book of faces, Midori and my string quartet

Today, officially the tickets for Java New Year Concert in Jakarta, January 4th are completely SOLD OUT. I would like to congratulate the whole team of JNYC for this. Chendra Panatan, my manager, choreographer, and head of the team of JNYC, has experimented a new method for the publicity for this concert : we don't spend any cent in publicity on newspapers or other mass media. He does it all through the internet, especially facebook. And I must admit, I hated Facebook up till a few weeks ago. Chendra convinced me of facebook a few months ago, by saying that my greatest idol with the great baritone voice, Barack Obama has done a most successful presidential campaign through Facebook. If he does it, then it must be correct.

Preparations are going well. The young pianists who will perform are at their best stamina. My flute and piano piece, "Rescuing Ariadne" was the last piece I rehearsed with. The players will be the English flutist Elizabeth Ashford and the young pianist from Bandung, Alfred Young Sugiri. This 5-minute piece was inspired by the painting of Titian, "Bacchus and Ariadne", hang in the National Gallery of London. Why the title ? Well, because Albert Roussel's Third Symphony (great piece, by the way) is titled as the painting, and I don't want to make a piece with the same title.

The soprano Bernadeta Astari has arrived from Holland, and we performed today at the Federasi Teater Indonesia some of my songs, including the one based on a poem of WS Rendra, Tidurlah Intan. We chatted with him afterwards.

Several days ago the Japanese legendary violinist Midori played my short string quartet "Lontano" with 3 other young musicians (from Singapore, Australia and USA) at the residence of the ambassador of Japan in Jakarta. Her foundation, Music Sharing (based in New York) commissioned it last year and I already finished it before summer this year. After this performance they then toured it to Jogja and Medan, and then to Japan. I didn't have time to rehearse with them beforehand, so I was rather nervous before the concert (and they played Debussy's --which is my all time favorite, adored, admired quartet-- as the last piece, which was the first time I heard live). But then they played so marvellously that they took my breath away. Still, nobody could beat the greatness of Debussy ; I admire that Frenchman more and more thru the years. What a f***ing genius !!

After the New Year Concerts, I will face my biggest challenge : writing music for solo guitar, commissioned by the fantastic Spanish guitarist Miguel Trapaga.

lunes, 15 de diciembre de 2008

From A to A (that makes us the A-team, eh?)

If one wants it, then it's done. Among my busy periods recording for the film "Romeo*Juliet" as well as rehearsing & preparing for the "Prelude" concerts for the New Year Concerts, I managed to write 4 short pieces : one choral work commissioned by ITB Choir to celebrate the Golden Anniversary of their prestigious university, and 3 songs for baritone & piano. The ITB Choral work is a festive one, based on Sapardi Djoko Damono's breathtaking & majestic sonnet (also commissioned for this event) called KITA CIPTAKAN KEMERDEKAAN (We Create Freedom). Its sketches were done on the plane from Bilbao to Jakarta and Jakarta-Surabaya-Jakarta in the last days of last month, and then it was written out completely and finished 7 days ago on Chendra's computer whose Sibelius program had gone mad. Until this minute I still haven't heard one note of that music, which will be the explanation if suddenly one or more chords would sound "avant-gardish".

The three songs for baritone & piano were done on Friday and Saturday 12th and 13th, between two concerts of mine. I wrote them for my good friend, the always F-word (I mean fabulous & fantastic) singer Joseph Kristanto "Akis" who celebrated his 39th birthday on the 15th. To those 3 songs I added 2 more older songs, one written in London during one of my stays with Chendra last spring when one day suddenly it snowed, and another piece already written for Akis one day after we rehearsed. So, this new cycle for baritone & piano is called "A untuk Akis, Alam dan Angkasa" (translated (in-)correctly it will be : A for Akis, nature and the universe). The songs are :

1. Kesetiaan Pohon (Sapardi Djoko Damono)
2. Masa Kecil di Pegunungan (Eka Budianta)
3. Salju di Musim Semi (Chendra Panatan)
4. Selokan (Sapardi Djoko Damono)
5. Berkicaulah Burungku (Eka Budianta)

I am always touched how Akis loves nature. Apart from his love and dedication to music, of course. He always thinks of his fish, and once we rehearsed at the Jakarta Conservatory and he pointed out a peculiar tree which had been there, unnoticed by me, during these years. And this is a guy who lives right in the middle of Jakarta, the most unfriendly city in the world, full of bricks, mortars ... and greedy corruptors. So, what other birthday present is more appropiate than a songcycle about nature ?
And I am so grateful to his dedication to my music ; he practically has sung, beautifully, 90% of my music for baritone ( I wish he would sing the 10% of the rest), and memorized them (no matter how strange they are) . These 5 songs is my gratitude and my celebration to his artistry and to our friendship that I highly cherish.

PS : Thanks to Akis' sister Ita for her help in its "special delivery" after lots of hassle with the printer. And another PS : just 1 day before his birthday, his fish whom I baptized under the name Nijinsky died. Requiescat in pace ...

miércoles, 3 de diciembre de 2008

Romeo*Juliet

So I keep my promise ! Rather late .. but hey ...

Who would have guessed that my first music for the film would be for a film about football ? I was baffled when the Indonesian film director Andibachtiar Yusuf approached me earlier this year to ask me to score the music for his "Romeo*Juliet". Yes, you got it right. But instead of Montague and Capulet, it is the Jakarta against the Bandung football fanclubs. The confrontation between them goes back to many decades, and when it happens, they are notorious for being violent. People got killed during their fights. So, you can guess how the story goes ...

... which reminds me, inevitably, of WestSide Story. It IS difficult not to have that masterpiece as a reference ! But Yusuf's film is not a musical film, so my job is a bit easier. Oh, I forgot to tell you that he wanted me and only me for this job, because of his huge crush on my duet from the cantata Ars Amatoria "Dalam Doaku" (In my Prayer). Definitely that song became an important part of the film ; in fact, the film revolved around that song. Yusuf was (is, and always will be) a great fan of rock music, and he has never fancied any kind of classical (read : soft, boring) music. But I am dubiously flattered when he discovered through my music that classical music is not that bad! Something is definitely very wrong with my music, or ... ?
For the film, I used other songs ("Kasih" and "Ketika Kau Entah Dimana", which happens to be my favorite amongst my songs) of mine, recently released in the CD "Ananda Sukarlan Vocal Works" for that film as well, besides writing quite a lot of new materials purely instrumental. So you can hear the voices of Bernadeta Astari and Joseph Kristanto in that film once in a while blasting from the cinema loudspeakers. The motifs I use for the whole soundtrack are taken from the hymn of both football clubs, and I just make some variations out of them, according to the situation which it accompanies.

This version of Romeo*Juliet is very Indonesian. I mean, the unromantic oriental type of love. Passionate, but unromantic. There is even no balcony scene in the whole film! I was quite confused when I read the script, but when I received the rough cut of the film, I honestly was pretty impressed. And I was quite inspired after I watched the rough cut. I decided that I don't have to escape from my musical style ; the film is very, very Indonesian in many ways, so that my "western" musical style would just compliment it without "stealing the show" as they say. As Aaron Copland said about writing music for films : "The best film music is the one you don't notice". In other words, you can hear it, but you don't listen to it.

The film is due to be shown in cinemas 21 throughout Indonesia starting late March 2009.

miércoles, 26 de noviembre de 2008

Newsflash

Sorry that this entry is a quickie one. Anyway, this is just to tell you that :

1. I am in Jakarta at the moment, although I will leave to Surabaya on the 28th, to be back in Jakarta beginning of December.

2. I have been very busy composing & recording for the film soundtrack "Romeo*Juliet" directed by Andibachtiar Yusuf. I will write about this further next week (unfortunately I have a habit of a presidential candidate : I don't keep up with my promises !)

3. Facebook : now, this is a problem. Since I have reached the limit of 5000 "friends", I cannot accept anymore friends, so I am VERY sorry. As you see, this is not my decision, but our big brother's, the facebook guys. But we have created the "Ananda Sukarlan's friends" group at facebook : you can search for it, and be a member. And yes, you STILL can send me messages through facebook ! But please do not suggest more friends for me ; you can, instead, invite all your friends to join the "Ananda Sukarlan's friends" group, once you become a member. Just click this : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41769011619 .

4. And I would like to confirm : YES, although it is still not finished, I am writing a new choral piece for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Institut Teknologi Bandung, one of the oldest and highly prestigious universities in Indonesia, celebrated in March next year. It is based on a new sonnet by Sapardi Djoko Damono, also commissioned by that mentioned choir.

viernes, 14 de noviembre de 2008

I, too, have a dream

Next week, a new CD of my works for voice(s) is gonna be released. I am so happy and honoured to have the soprano Bernadeta Astari "Deta" and the baritone Joseph Kristanto "Akis" record my vocal works. Apart from the fact that they are the two singers who have specialized in almost all my music involving the human voice and have worked with me intensely in performing them, they are magnificent musicians with impeccable techical abilities, sensitive artistry and profound musical understanding.

My interest in the human voice dated back in the 1980s when I heard Benjamin Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings during my student years. That was the first vocal work that has made me weep, literally weep, during its performance. Since then, I started my collection of all Peter Pears' recording of Britten's whole ouvres, so my first vocal works were just bad copies of Britten and justly enough they all ended up in my dustbin. In the 1990s, it was the poetry of Walt Whitman, William Blake and Longfellow that have helped me find my own path. Still, I was feeling uneasy for not being able to feel at home in setting words of my own language. Ilham Malayu's poems during his stay in Bangkok prison were the first poems in Indonesian that I set to music, but it wasn't until very recently that I had a huge crush with the poetry of Sapardi Djoko Damono. And then came along other great Indonesian poets : Goenawan Mohamad, Eka Budianta, Hasan Aspahani, Nirwan Dewanto, Ook Nugroho and so on. Ah, and that fascinating miniaturist lady, Medy Loekito. And with my inspirational singer friends around, my Indonesian songs just came along and took shape naturally. I feel that my best music ("best" is according to my, and only mine, not other people's standard) are written inspired by people or their artistry.

I have a dream (this is not because of Obama reminding the famous phrase of MLK), that one day Indonesia will have virtuosi of all instruments, so that they would and could inspire me to write concertos for each of them : a violin concerto, clarinet concerto, up to ... bassoon concerto, harp concerto, tuba concerto and --why not?-- a percussion concerto. And yeah, my next Concerto for piano and orchestra should not be written for myself. There are many, many highly talented young Indonesian pianists around. They will prevail. And very soon.