A short note to all winners, my colleagues

Just came back from Surabaya, after the exhilarating, exciting and inspiring National Vocal Competition Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan (TPAS) for the whole weekend last week, organized as always by its initiator, Amadeus Performing Arts and its director Patrisna May Widuri. My impressions? Too much, too many to be written in words. Basically, I am more than happy to listen to all (yes, ALL) participants. Their vocal techniques are pretty accomplished. The only problems for some of them lie on their understanding of the music they sing, the interpretation and the grip for the style of the music. But each vocalist has something in them, and if I were obliged to write music for their voice, I know what kind of music suits for each and every one of them since they all have strong characters. As I always say, I can catch any elements in every artists in of all sorts and quality to inspire me. ............................................................................................................................................ But what's next, for those enthusiastic young vocalists, especially the "winners"? Well, I guess they should know that the last week's competition is the lightest, easiest thing they have done for their career, nothing compared to the real competition that awaits them now: the real life competition. It is right now that the real competition starts. Yes, of course all, or perhaps 99,9% of all musicians having a musical career today had gone through some kinda competition, whether it is purely as such, or auditions of some kind. While competitions are something normal in Europe, the Americas or already in many countries in Asia, it is still quite new in Indonesia, where we had, and still have the tradition of engaging artists based on family relations or friendships, not on objective qualities of the musician. For my new Violin Concerto to be premiered next month with the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra I had to hold an audition through youtube, and the winner was a young violinist of 17, Amadeus Giovani Biga who I didn't know at all before. I wouldn't be able to get his kind of quality among my relatives or friends. Many musicians are still weary, not to say afraid, to join one, and I even cannot think of a competition for instruments other than piano and voice here in Indonesia. Even some music teachers still prohibit their students to join one for being afraid of "losing". Well, if the only thing that matters is being the prizewinner, then I would discourage you to join one. Imagine, there will be only one, yes ONE winner among all the participants, no matter if there are 10 or 100 participants. What's the use, then? The answer is that being the first, absolute prize winner in a competition does not guarantee anything. Oh, then competitions are even more useless? Whazza diff between being the winner and the losers? Wait, wait. Read my thoughts further below and hope you'll understand my point. ............................................................................................................................................ TPAS hopefully would serve as the first step of their looong musical career journey upwards. Our previous (TPAS 2011) winners have gone to different directions, all upwards. Indah Pristanti (Senior Female winner) continues her voice studies in Vienna. Adi "Didut" Nugroho is enjoying his new career, not far from singing: becoming the conductor of the ITB University Choir, and still sings some times. Evelyn Merrelita stays in Surabaya, but is now the darling of our capital city; she's been invited several times to be a soloist by the Indonesia Opera Society, Nusantara Symphony Orchestra in Jakarta and all 3 of them have had the leading roles in my chamber operas. ............................................................................................................................................ But is it that nice 'n easy? Oh no, my dear. There is one thing that no competitions in the whole universe could do to filter the best musicians, and that is ATTITUDE. You can sing until all the windows break, you can move your fingers on the piano faster than the speed of light, you can win all the competitions on this planet and the others, but if your attitude is not exemplary, you won't make it as a musician. I will tell you the real truth: the more you become successful, the more "friends" you will have. Those "friends" will try to pull you down, since you are higher than them. They will stab you in your back, since that is where their position is: behind you. They laugh at you because you are different or outstanding, coz they want you to be the same as anybody else. They like to talk bad things about you, and if they can't find bad things, they will invent them, coz it comforts them, it soothes their worries. Remember : they don't hate you. They really really adore you, so much that they want to become you. It's called envy, and it comes from admiration, but a negative one. And you can defend yourselves from those things, my friends, with your attitude. The only way to eliminate your enemies is to make them your friends. Now, THAT you don't learn in ANY music schools on this planet. Remember, they consider you better than them from the musical point of view. But if you don't have a good attitude, you are definitely worse than them. As a human being. And in the end, that's what counts. Unfortunately, the most common mistake for upcoming young musicians is mingling with other people's business. You know why? Coz what people think or talk about you is NOT your business at all, it's THEIR business. So let them do their business, and you, my friends, yeah, you go on with your life. You, my friends, have a wonderful future ahead of you, having such big talents and coming from the richest country in the world which I am proud of. Show the world how great is Indonesian culture, and how you can give something that nobody else can give. You don't only share music in your life. "Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give, I give myself. I exist as I am, that is enough" (Walt Whitman) ............................................................................................................................................ Winners of the TPAS 2013 are listed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/361289260607185/ . Congratulations not only to Isyana Sarasvati, Theodora Amabel Beatrice, Widhawan Aryo Praditha & Nikodemus Lukas Hariono who won 1st prizes in their respective categories, but to all participants. By daring to participate and challenge yourself, you are already a winner. At least for me, coz I'm like that too, and I'm proud to have you as my colleagues and friends.

Break a leg! (on Friday the 13th)

Yup, that's what one usually say to a performing artist about to go on stage. In Spanish it's even worse, they say "mucha mierda!" which means "loads of shit!". If it were told to a politician who's about to give his campaign talk it would be more appropriate. I don't know the origins of those sayings (am pretty sure lots of google entries can explain it to you), but in any case those well-wishes phrases stem from the superstition that giving good wishes is considered bad luck. And yes, we artists ARE highly superstitious due to our insecurity towards the high level of unpredictability of our end products.

But I did get my bad luck a few days ago, and it wasn't on stage. It was an act as simple as going down the livingroom steps at my house, just those 2 steps that I've known for 13 years that I lived here. Maybe that's the bad luck key: I fell on Friday the 13th, after 13 years living here. And it wasn't as bad as breaking a leg, I just broke a bone in my left foot (if I had fallen at 13.00 p.m it might be worse). The most outer bone, that most vulnerable one. After I fell down, I didn't go immediately to the hospital but tried to live a "normal" life for a few days instead, until yesterday my wife insisted that we go visit the hospital since the pain didn't go away. And so we went, and they X-rayed my feet. And my fate for the next month is sealed: I will need 2 walking sticks to help me walk.

Needless to say, I will have lots of time this week, since I mainly lie down in bed with my laptop. Even today, I've read all those mailing lists which I normally don't read, checked all messages on facebook ... and tweeted of course. But I also have talked to my managers and we have decided that my next public appearances will not be cancelled. I have only a broken foot, which is so light compared to a broken heart or broken spirit! Even only 1 day has passed, I could already understand how life is for disabled people, and I'm sure it will inspire me for something. As you might know, I have written music for disabled people, and now by experiencing first hand how it is, I am more keen to do it. As I would be too lazy to bend one of my legs to live and feel how life is with 1 leg if I hadn't got this accident, so I feel lucky to have experienced this. So, next week I will still teach at Rotterdam as a guest professor and even keep my small concert & talk there on Tuesday evening for the students (mostly piano and composition), and the week after I will go to Jakarta where I will perform Tschaikovsky's Piano Concerto and that famous variation of Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody with a new arrangement: accompanied by an ensemble of angklung! The concert will take place on May 5th at Teater Jakarta (TIM). This will be a very special experience for me. Other guest stars will be one of the winners of the National Vocal Competition "Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan" Adi "Didut" Nugroho (yup, he's the tenor who asked for wealth to the shaman in my opera "Mendadak Kaya") and famous Indonesian pop singer Kikan Namara. Hopefully things will go well, since it's more difficult to travel with one leg. Wish me luck, friends, but this time I dunno how, since I have fulfilled your good wish by breaking a leg. Literally.

On revising music ... and life

What are the most painful moments of a composer? I would answer: every time we hear a performance of our music for the first time. A few days ago I woke up receiving a link to youtube from a young clarinettist who performed an old piece of mine, Lust's Passion, for clarinet & piano. That piece I "discovered" among my files in Sibelius last year, and after a few revisions I sent it to Paco Gil Ortiz, the clarinettist who then gave a poignant performance with pianist Elias Romero. This is the video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxOTd_sgRcM

As it is a piece from about 5 years ago there were some things in it which I wasn't satisfied with. But I decided I'd release it and let it have "its own life" anyway as I believe that every musical piece is a piece of the composer at a determined date or period of his life. But then, listening to the performance I realized that the last section is unproportionally too short. I really don't know why I made it that way, perhaps I had to write a "real" piece afterwards (what I mean "real" is a commissioned piece, you know, my real work, not a piece like this which I do "for fun").

I do have lots of short pieces like this, usually I do it when I am stuck in writing big pieces. Those pieces just appeared out of the blue in my head, and I write them down anyway, having the faith that they won't be in vain (and until now some of them even became the most performed pieces of mine, perhaps due to their practicalities, small instrumental formations and short durations).

But with Lust's Passion both Paco and me have decided that it really needs a revision in its last section. So I've been spending this weekend doing it, and I must say I don't really fancy doing it too often. It's like watching a video recording of myself 5 years ago and see how silly I was and trying to correct it. I never revise those small pieces until now. They were born spontaneously and they should remain as it is: spontaneous, as a record my state of mind, temporal madness and even stupidity at that particular moment. It's like suddenly I had access to that mysterious spot in my brain, and I let it go beserk for a few minutes or hours needed to let me write the music down, but then it should be tamed down and brought back to its hidden place. Big pieces, yes I do although they are more "corrections" than revisions, like my opera "The Mother whose son was kidnapped", but I limit it to the piano part since I play it myself. We are performing it again next May and each performance since the premiere in 2009 enjoyed (or suffered?) a revision, however small in the piano part. I can say it with my other opera "Laki-Laki Sejati" too, and I have revised some things in "Mendadak Kaya" which will be performed in Bandung next July as the opening of ASA-BIMA International Piano Competition. In fact, we have corrected and improved some things (mainly some impossible falsetti!) with the singers Adi "Didut" Nugroho and Pharel Silaban during its premiere last January, and those are the things which I wrote down in the score. Those 3 operas have their definite scores which can be performed by other people now.

The last few months I also wrote some occasional pieces for piano solo, such as "Unexpected Turns" for my childhood friend and now a prominent Indonesian writer Laksmi Pamuntjak for her (second) wedding gift, and "A Little Light Music" for the (belated) birthday of Edith Widayani, winner of Ananda Sukarlan Award 2010. Both will be included in Alicia's Third Piano Book which God knows when it will be published. In fact I've got several pieces for it although now Alicia officially declares that she's not going to pursue her studies in music. She still plays once in a while though. Oh, and the overture to the opera MENDADAK KAYA has now become my 6th Etude, I didn't extend it as I thought I would. I promised to write it for Japanese pianist Kazuha Nakahara who has performed several of my other etudes, and I was aware when I wrote that overture that it would be an independent (and very virtuosic) short piano piece. It lasts for a bit more than 1,5 minutes, and it bears the title "Ritual Dance" as an etude. The title reminds me of Sir Michael Tippett's Ritual Dances from his opera "The Midsummer Marriage"; in his case it's quite a big and impressive orchestral piece.

Just for my personal diary: I just finished my piece for flute & orchestra for the great flutist Andrea Griminelli. It's a noisy 8-minute piece called "The Wrath of Pan" (hehe .. yup, I stole the title from the Star Trek movie "The Wrath of Khan"). Andrea would like more movements, so the whole thing in the future would be a symphony about the Gods of flute. He's going to examine the music next week once he gets back from the US. When I said "just finished" it wasn't really true: I have 3 alternative endings for it, and haven't decided which one to pick! I hope the conversation with Andrea next week would help me make my mind. In any case, the piece will end "with a bang" as we always say.

Aaaand ... I already have the libretto for my next chamber opera ....

P.S : Wanna say hello to the cute baby of Nico & Meri, whose name "Emilio" was given by me. I wrote a short lullaby for him (also will be included in Alicia's 3rd piano book) during our coffee chat at the Surabaya Airport. I gave the manuscript to his happy parents which then was sent to me back scanned in an email, and when I copied it neatly in my appartment in Jakarta last December, ehm .. I made some revisions, so the final work is rather different than the manuscript which they possess now. What a fuss for a 1-minute piece, eh? Oh well, as Walt Whitman said, "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes."

Original interview with Indonesia Tatler, Jan. 2012

Now that one of Indonesia's most prestigious lifestyle magazine Indonesia Tatler has published the February edition, I can post here the original (meaning the one that I sent them) interview which was then edited, cut and published in their January edition. Due to the limited space, the one published was just around half of the original interview, so enjoy this one.

1. New year concerts are common happening in Europe & America. Did the annual happenings intrigue you to create one in Indonesia? Why? Please elaborate.

Yes, I "stole" those ideas, but only the idea, not the content. We have to adapt it to Indonesia's situation, tradition and culture, therefore it's not done every 1st of January, but every first Sunday since our second edition in 2006. This year, since Jan. 1st falls on a Sunday, we do it on the 8th in Jakarta since people are still having holiday out of town during the first week. Also we want to make the program content as Indonesian as possible, as London does it as English possible and Vienna as Austrian possible. It would make no sense to make a new year concert with a Western content, as foreign people came to our concert to "feel" Indonesian as those who do to Vienna, Amsterdam etc. It has now become a landmark in Jakarta, and starting this year we do it in Surabaya (13th) and Bandung (15th) too, therefore the "J" in JNYC is changed from Jakarta to Java.

2. What are the pieces to be presented at the concert?

This is a groundbreaking program in Indonesia, never been done even in our 6 JNYC's before: two operas in one show: A Real Man and Suddenly Rich. We are taking a big risk here, since operas are still considered both "extremely high brow" and "boring" (too long? in a foreign language?) to Indonesian audience. The reasons we dare to do this are: 1. both operas are short (half an hour each) and in Indonesian, so the audience would understand. 2. Both are taken from two popular short stories by Indonesia's "father of short stories" Putu Wijaya, and the plots are quite simple, light but profound (both discussing single themes: the first about "what is a real man" and the second "if you have to choose, which one do you prefer: money or happiness?"). 3. Both are presented as comedies with twists in the end, so I hope this will bring joy and not a heavy burden for the audience. Imagine starting the new year watching a horror or thriller opera! Hopefully this will not only attract music lovers, but also literature fans as well as dance fans (Chendra Panatan, my favorite choreographer graduate from England is doing the stage direction and choregraphy).
The singers are considered the best young vocalists of today in Indonesia, since they have brilliantly won prizes at the "Ananda Sukarlan National Vocal Competition" 2011. They are still unknown, but they are THE Indonesian classical singers of the near future. Remember these names: Evelyn Merrelita (soprano coloratura), Eriyani Tenga Lunga (mezzosoprano) and two tenors Adi "Didut" Nugroho and Pharel Silaban. And let's not forget one thing: the Bank Indonesia Auditorium is not often open for public concerts, but in fact it is definitely the best hall, acoustically speaking as well as its luxurious design, for chamber music and chamber opera in Indonesia. It's amazingly good.

3. Any particular reason for the choice? Please elaborate.

Answered above, right?

4. Appreciation to classical music in Indonesia is growing. There are more concerts now as well as new venues - ie Aula Simfonia. How did you perceive it? How did you compare it with those in South Korea and Japan?

We are still way far behind those countries, since we lack one crucial thing: music education at school. It's true that we have audience that flock to classical concerts nowadays, but I bet you they are always the same people. I dare to say, perhaps around the maximum 3000 people in Jakarta who go to those concerts. Now, that's a very small percentage of the total inhabitants of Jakarta, right? And in my case, many expatriates are among the audience.

5. Does working with top musicians abroad means anything to you? Why? Tell us of your unforgettable moments with them.

Of course. I learned a lot not only from their immense knowledge but also their professionalism, musical craftmanship and artistry, not mentioning their contagious passion in what they are doing. It's amazing how, as a 20-year-old boy I learned about musical structures (the real one, not the one we learn from books) and how we play with psychological time and durations directly from masters such as Sir Michael Tippett, who saw the enormous potential inside me but also, in a nice and subtle way, told me that I was wasting my talent then and I should focus on less things. Greatness comes not from a huge talent, but severe self-criticism, hard work, passion, modesty and willingness to constantly go out of our comfort zone. And of course people like him really helped my career as he was the first "living legend" I met and the one who introduced me to the BBC for the first time, for example.

6. England has The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Does Indonesia need one? Why? Please elaborate.

We have already many orchestras, mostly not up to standards. We need quality, not quantity to represent Indonesia. What is more urgent is establishing the identity of Indonesian classical music and only good quality musicians can inspire composers to do that. And then we need public and sponsors who believe in supporting our own musicians, and understand that classical music indeed originates from Europe, but every country has developed its own identity of it. Indonesia has not. That's why me and my friends started those competitions for piano and voice, giving platforms for young musicians to manifest their talents regardless of where they come from and to help them start their career and to be known to a wider public.

7. In the days of 'Orde Lama' there were designs to build an art centre plus a concert hall in the class of l'Opera de Paris in the area surrounding Museum Nasional, Jakarta. Is it time to start again with the project? How instrumental is the opening of such a grand venue in enhancing the development of performing arts? Please explain.

Of course, but we have to pay much attention to acoustics. Again, we have many theatres, but very few with the good condition for presenting classical music without sound system. As long as the architect doesn't consider the hall's acoustics as a musical instrument, it is doomed to be a failure. Look, in a piano recital there are two musical instruments: the piano AND the hall. That has never been thought like that by architects in Indonesia. And as you consult a pianist if you want to buy a piano, you should consult (classical) musicians when you build a concert hall.

Isn't it (suddenly) rich? Are we a pair?

Now that my opera MENDADAK KAYA ("Suddenly Rich") is almost finished less than 2 months before its premiere, I dare to write my thoughts about it. Unintentionally it sounds much more "masculine" than Laki-Laki Sejati. Of course there are melancholic parts especially when Alung, the guy who visited the witchdoctor to ask for wealth, realized that he wasn't as happy as when he was poor. But mostly it has very strong rhythmic elements, and I (over?)exploited the "rap" influence throughout the piece.

I have been fascinated how composers "steal" foreign elements outside himself and transformed it into his own. As for rap, Sir Michael Tippett has done it in his last opera, "New Year", and what you hear there is just Tippett. You sort of know that it's taken from rap, but it's become so Tippett. I hope I succeeded in stealing rap into my own music in my opera.

The piano part is surprisingly (even for me) virtuosic. Lots of notes and quite thick. In fact I am toying the idea of taking the whole overture and extend it (doesn't need much more, though!) into an Etude, most probably my 6th etude. The score of the opera will be more than 60 pages because of those notes on the piano. Influences come from Stravinsky, Ligeti and even some Philip Glass creeped in.

I am using, in some parts, a new mode which I am deeply attracted to these days which is a mix of lydian and mixolydian mode. So it's a whole tone from the third to the fourth note AND another whole tone from the last note back to the tonic (which means a half tone from the 6th to the 7th note). It sounds very peculiar, sort of oriental but weird. I use it when the witchdoctor is being possessed, or exorcised perhaps.

Anyway, I wonder how the tenors Pharel J. Silaban and Adi "Didut" Nugroho are taking this. My repertoire for tenor is quite limited in fact, so it's another surprising fact that I am writing an opera for 2 tenors! I have known them for a while now, and it's a big stimulation for me that they are really nice people; both don't "act like tenors", so I am very much looking forward to working with them. There will be female dancers involved as well here, ad.lib. Much more acting is demanded in Mendadak Kaya compared to Laki-Laki Sejati and of course the choreography of the female dancers, so Chendra Panatan will have to work harder. This is not just a dialogue; the witchdoctor has to be "possessed" and Alung comes and goes as both a rich and poor, happy and unsatisfied person, and singing rap should involve a bit of dancing or at least a typical "rap" gesture. Oh God, forgive me for I have sinned ...

Just when I finish writing this Chendra appeared in my chat room. Apparently, two months before the show, tickets are selling quite well. (The "early bird" period just finished yesterday and apparently many tickets are sold) and he asked me about the possibility of a second performance. So, next Monday the 21st we will contact the hall (Auditorium of Bank Indonesia) and see if we can do another performance on the 9th of January, the day after the premiere. It will be a Monday, not a good day for a performance, but we'll see ...

Mendadak Kaya will be premiered at the Java New Year Concerts, Bank Indonesia Auditorium on January 8th, 4 p.m. together as a double-bill with my other opera Laki-Laki Sejati. It will be repeated in Bandung (hence we changed "Jakarta" into "Java" in the event's name which is already held for the 7th time now) on the 15th of January without Laki-Laki Sejati. Laki-Laki Sejati itself (without Mendadak Kaya) will be performed in Surabaya on January 13th. Tweet me at @anandasukarlan if you are confused with this ...and I'll give you a more complete info.

Pain and pleasure (Violence in music)

I am glad that Laki-Laki Sejati's world premiere went so well, much more than I imagined. The singers, Indah Pristanti & Evelyn Merrelita performed their roles so brilliantly, technically and interpretatively speaking. Everyone adored their passion, their high expressivity, their total dedication, and some media have even written about "a discovery of new & brilliant talents". Erza ST of the Jakarta Post mentioned about both of them: "Evelyn not only excelled in performing this challenging part, but she did it in an elegant and effortless manner. Indah Pristanti’s velvety voice was the right combination with Evelyn’s, and together they gave a remarkable and harmonious performance."

What's next? Lots of things. Laki-laki Sejati (LLS) suddenly is in everybody's tongue and is now well in demand, with further new productions in Surabaya and another in THE classical music concert of the year: The Jakarta New Year Concert (JNYC). Everyone involved in the production of this event told me that Laki-Laki Sejati is just tailor-made for the typical JNYC audience: a "high-brow" one eager to have a light but classy entertainment. I don't want to call myself or my music classy, but certainly the quality of the performance up to the minute details (plus the posh costumes by Alleira Batik) can be defined as one.

But LLS is just half an hour long. So I have to do another thing to fill up the other half of the program. The program would then be an operatic double-bill. Therefore I am hard working on my next opera at the moment, again from a short story of Putu Wijaya, called Mendadak Kaya ("Suddenly rich"). It is a very Indonesian story about a guy who visits a witchdoctor, asking the latter to make him rich. His wish is always fulfilled, but something wrong always happens so he keeps coming back to "correct" his wish, which then make us delve into the psychology of the rich and the poor and the concept of happiness. But you're wrong if you think that this is just a typical money-doesn't-buy-happiness type of story. As usual with Putu Wijaya's stories, it is full of twists and philosophical ideas. This opera will be for an unusual formation of 2 tenors, and will be sung by winners of "Tembang Puitik" Ananda Sukarlan Vocal Award, Pharel Silaban and Adi "Didut" Nugroho.

I am trying to do a different kind of "humor" here, more of a slapstick one. That's why I've been watching a lot of cartoon movies these days, mostly my all time favorite Tom & Jerry and therefore I discovered the new element in music: violence. Of course you can hear those violent characters in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Britten's War Requiem and everywhere in Shostakovich and Prokofiev's music, but what I want to tell you here is the impact to us, getting pleasure from listening to it. In the extreme case, of course you can get it in rock music.
Visually speaking, one might not be aware (especially children) that there are a lot of violence in cartoon movies. How many times Jerry is smashed by Tom (and vice versa), how many times Tom bumps into a door and countless scenes like that? All those are accompanied by abrupt changes in music, which could work well even without the visual scenes.

The psychological impact of music to our lives is much much stronger than we could imagine. As music can make us better people, it can also make us extract the potential violence and all other dirty rubbish in our psyche. I am not talking about the violence in the words or text of a song, I am talking about the musical elements itself: It is odd to remember that Stalin got very nervous to the violence in the music of Shostakovich, while we know that he was a ruthless dictator. Up to a certain limit, I think the violence in music is a good cathartic method to relieve our anger, just as we like to listen to sad music or watch a sad movie when we are feeling blue. But as anything else, if it is too much (especially in classical music where it can easily carry you away) things could get out of hand eh?

What's a real man?

OK, it's now official. Scarily official. I have started writing my next opera, this time a real mini pocket opera, and I am happy to tell about it. It will be for 2 singers (mezzo-soprano & soprano) and I (or for the future productions another pianist) will accompany it. No other instruments except some small percussions which I bring with myself. It will be produced by its commissioner, Bimasena, in October this year.

This opera is based on a very short story by Putu Wijaya, a renowned Indonesian writer who has written more than 1000 short stories. The title, which will also be for my opera, is Laki-laki Sejati (A real man), and the story is a dialogue between a mother (a (high) soprano who's wisdom is solidly based on her knowledge of men!) and her daughter in her late teens (sung by a mezzosoprano or high alto who --unfortunately-- can be (much) older than that, since it does happen, and often, in real life) who is desperate on having a boyfriend. The story starts with her asking her mom, "Mom, what is in fact a real man?" and ends with a catchy conclusion of what, or where, or how, a real man is indeed.

I spent most of the time during my flight from Bilbao to Jakarta last weekend in making the plans from Putu Wijaya's script. I am now waiting for his approval of my cuts and small editions, which will make the duration of the opera about 24 minutes. In fact I have been looking for a script with 3 characters involved, one of them a male, since I am writing this to be premiered by the winners of the Ananda Sukarlan Vocal Competition (Tembang Puitik AS) last April: coloratura soprano Evelyn Merrelita, mezzosoprano Indah Pristanti and the tenor Adi Nugroho, the latter had performed with me 2 months ago in Magelang and will again do so in Makassar, hopefully in October. After I browsed Putu Wijaya's many short stories (for a long time I've been thinking to do something with his works) I found this kind of tragi-comedy, brilliantly written by this Balinese writer, and decided to do this for now. Adi Nugroho will have to wait, but I am sure I'll get hold of a nice script for an opera for him to be involved.

It will be too soon to say more about Laki-laki Sejati, since I barely written the notes (I did start a chaconne for an introduction to an aria for the mezzosoprano on the plane), but I really would like to discover "the other side of me" with this opera, not me who people call "romantic". I refuse to be called a romantic. I prefer to be like Winnie the Pooh, a bear of very simple brain who doesn't like difficult words (nor music).

Surabaya Singing

A few days ago this article was published in The Jakarta Globe newspaper, edited as usual. Therefore I post here my original writing, unedited and uncut.




It's just unbelievable that in this country of 200 million people there is yet a classical music voice competition of a national scale, while there is an abundance of great vocal soloists and choirs all over the country. There is even the erroneous term "lagu seriosa" (serious songs) for the genre of classical music songs (and sometimes even opera arias), which automatically condemns the other genres (such as jazz, folk music etc) as "not serious". Sometimes it's not even applied to the genre but to a manner of singing, so that one can sing a pop song in a "seriosa" way, i.e. you should wear a Maria Callas (or even Bianca Castafiore?)-like gown and sing in an incomprehensive and loud voice that will break all the glasses around you. It was a myth in this country until very recently that classical music singers should sing words that were not meant to be understood. Just sing high notes, higher than the seventh heaven but still audible to (break the) human ears, and you'd be accepted in the "seriosa" exclusive club of high art.

Therefore it is highly admirable that Surabaya's Amadeus Performing Arts with its director & founder, that hyperactive lady Patrisna May Widuri would organize a competition of a national scale for classical vocalists. They even use the term which I and a handful of Indonesian classical musicians agreed on for this genre, "Tembang Puitik" (Poetic Songs), since most of the songs of Schubert, Mahler, Britten up to yours truly are based on existing poems and not just inventing and repeating texts as happens in pop music, such as "You're beautiful" (repeated to death) and just ends with "it's true". Let's just use this term "Tembang Puitik" for art-songs (I don't even like this English term, as if, hey, that Spanish flamenco passionate singing is not art or what?) of both Indonesian and international for the future, shall we?

In spite of the name, "Ananda Sukarlan Art-song National Competition" (Kompetisi Nasional Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan), this event was neither my idea nor organized by me. It was 100% Amadeus' iniciative. I was there to serve as the head of the judge, and am honoured to sit with the other jury members Aning Katamsi (should she need an introduction, I could only say that she is Indonesia's most prominent soprano of today) and choir conductor-voice expert-former dean of the Music Faculty of the Satya Wacana University of Salatiga, Agastya Rama Listya.

Although joined by 34 highly talented vocalists from all over Indonesia, 2 cities still stood out for the quantity and quality of their singers: Jakarta & Surabaya. Medan follows behind, but it has its shortcomings: they don't have classically trained teachers to polish the singing techniques. The competition's high artistic & musical demands were the reason why it wasn't a target for beginners or "Indonesian Idol" type of singers.

Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan (TPAS) is planned to be a biennal date for vocalists to meet in Surabaya, so the next one will be held in 2013. My name is used, I guess because quantity-wise I am currently the Indonesian composer who has written the most artsongs; more than 100 until now (no, no, this is by no means an achievement at all. Franz Schubert wrote more than 600 before he died at the early age of 31. And they were waaaay better). About 50 of them were sung by the participants during that weekend.

The competition was split into 2 categories : Professional and Non Professional, and the non-pro one was again split into 4 categories : Junior, Senior Male, Senior Female and Senior 2 (which meant to accomodate singers above 40 but turned out to be not so effective, since there were only 2 participants in this category. We, above 40, have lost the spirit of competitivity, I guess! The organizer, with the consent of the artistic board decided to keep this category to maintain the spirit of tirelessly learning and perfecting the techniques even at this age).

One groundbreaking thing I would like to mention is the way TPAS was introduced, socialized and managed by Amadeus. It was done almost exclusively by the social media, Facebook and Twitter. Since this does not involve a highly lucrative genre of music, most conventional media such as the newspaper, let alone TV stations turned their back on this event. The results of the competition were also announced in real time through twitter while I was announcing the results (both semifinal and final) to a live audience of just a few hundreds at the Petra University Auditorium. This time I let my twitter account @anandasukarlan being "hacked" by them, since among all of us involved I have the dubious honour of having the most followers. But I can assure you that only those few crucial minutes in my tweeting career that "my" tweets were typed by someone else since it would be annoying to the public listening to me reading the results on stage and tweeting at the same time. Apart from those moments my tweets are like my music, typed by my very own 10 fingers. Those tweets of "mine" during the announcement were then numerously retweeted all over the country, and that made me believe that twitter, not a dog, is man's best friend if he loves classical music and arts in this country.

This event, followed minute by minute by literally thousands of classical music lovers throughout the country through social media hopefully demonstrated how badly needed a concert hall is in Surabaya, even a small, decent and simple one. My heart broke when the tenor Ivan Jonathan who turned out to perform excellently had to stop and waited for more than half an hour due to the noise of the heavy rain .. and the electricity failure that "naturally" followed it. One should remember that during that period of waiting he should be always prepared to perform any minute just when the rain stopped and the lights went on, and maintaining that kind of artistic awareness in a tough competition like this is a thing which is not at all to be taken lightly.

As there are 5 categories, so there are 5 first winners in this competition, but for me personally 3 vocalists stood out -- the tenor Adi Nugroho, soprano Indah Pristanti and the coloratura soprano Evelyn Merrelita, each won first prizes in their respective categories. However, since Adi Nugroho won the best interpretation of all my works, he receives the honour (if one calls it so) of giving concerts singing my works organized by my management , accompanied --unfortunately stressful for him, I believe-- by myself.
This has been a big classical music landmark, not only in Surabaya but also nationally. It has certainly put Surabaya on the map. And in our hearts.

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The complete list of winners of Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan National Voice Competition are :

Professional : 1. Evelyn Merrelita 2. Eriyani Tenga Lunga 3. Pharel Silaban

Non professional, cat. JUNIOR : 1. Theodora A. Beatrice 2. Vallerie Chr. Gunawan 3. A. James Sofyan

SENIOR 1 Female: 1. Indah Pristanti 2. Christine M. Tambunan 3. tied between Agatha Stella & Mariska Setiawan

SENIOR 1 Male: 1. Adi Nugroho 2. Ivan Jonathan 3. Anggana Bunawan

SENIOR 2 (over 40 years): 1. Linda Hartono 2. Natalis Sidhanta

Best interpretation & understanding of the music of Ananda Sukarlan : Adi Nugroho