Classical music finds step in Jakarta

Classical music finds step in Jakarta

Mehru Jaffer
Contributor
Jakarta

Gabriel Bingei, 4, would rather play with his grey and white
teddy bear but it is time for him to practice the violin instead.

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head playfully before
grabbing a baby violin. He is still so tiny that he has to perch
on top of a bench to read from the music spread out on a stand.
His teacher Grace Sudargo giggles along with Gabriel. She tickles
him and promises a lollipop before getting dead serious about
making music.

Older sister Saskya, 6, leafs through a storybook as she waits
her turn to take lessons at the Capella Amadeus, the music school
run by Grace.

Grace was just seven years old when she started violin
lessons. At the age of 13, she was determined to make music her
career and to study in Austria. Although enamored at the thought
of performing, her professors encouraged her to teach music.

While still in Austria, Grace decided to treat herself to two
majors: in teaching as well as in concert performance. At the end
of her studies she turned down an attractive job offer in Austria
to return to Jakarta to perform, and more importantly to teach
music to children here.

Capella Amadeus was started about five years ago with six
students and one teacher. Now the institution has expanded to
include 220 students, with the youngest one being three years
old, and 20 teachers.

During this time, the school has organized concerts, workshops
for teachers and music critics too and traveled for performances
in provinces outside of Java.

Grace feels that it is not enough for just a handful of people
to know and appreciate music.

"Music needs a much larger community of not just performers
but a vast audience and educated critics. That network is missing
in this country," says Grace, adding that it is where most music
is treated merely as mindless entertainment.

This is a pity because teachers around the world appreciate
the positive effect music has, especially on children.

It is increasingly felt that musical activities provide
children with important experiences that help to develop memory,
physical coordination, timing, visual, auditory and language
skills.

When they work to increase their command of music, and
exercise musical skills in the company of others, they gain an
important experience in mental concentration and a heightened
personal and social awareness.

It is also agreed that different kinds of rhythm and harmony
touch the innermost soul of people but knowledge of western
classical music is valuable also for instilling discipline into
the life of a human being. Through the study of music an attitude
of musical appreciation and expression is fostered that is able
to enrich an entire lifetime.

In Japan, it is mandated by the Ministry of Education that
every child between the grade of 1 and 9 receive some hours of
music tuition at all elementary and junior high schools in both
the appreciation of music and in the expression of making music.

And this preoccupation with music as a central and essential
part of a young person's school day is not exclusive to Japan but
also in Germany where each student receives a minimum of two 45-
minute classes per week in music from kindergarten to grade 12.

Music educators believe that to survive in the computer age
music is essential and that the creative, productive use of
leisure throughout life is and will be of great importance, not
just to the individual but to society as well.

"Western music is kept alive by a few individuals. There are
many distinguished musicians here but each one performs or
teaches in their own little corner, seldom sharing their talent
and knowledge with each other," regrets Dorothy Poon Louvet,
founder and producer of the Bel Canto series of concerts.

A Hong Kong citizen, she has been tirelessly trying to promote
classical music here as it exists in her home country. She dreams
of the day when classical music activities will have a permanent
home in a proper opera house and a central arts development
authority will coordinate, finance and popularize
music production and appreciation here.

After having produced vocal and instrumental music concerts
since 1999, she would love to stage ballet performances and (very
costly) an opera.

Due to a lack of institutional support the 10-year-old Twilite
Orchestra cannot afford to concentrate on its first love,
classical music, alone.

To keep the orchestra alive, Addie MS, founder conductor has
included in its repertoire all symphonic music, film music,
excerpts and arias from operas and Broadway musicals and pop
music. In the absence of a proper auditorium, Addie is also happy
to perform wherever a considerable audience is able to collect,
from a shopping mall to a hotel lobby.

"We do play classical music and it is played as it should be.
We do not attempt to simplify classical music for the masses,"
adds Addie. To continue to survive he takes inspiration from the
pops orchestras of the west that are popular today for playing
all kinds of music, except the boring kind.

Aida Swenson Simanjuntak is yet another pioneer in widening
the appeal of western classical music. She is inspired by her
father, A. Simanjuntak, well known composer of Indonesian music,
to pour her heart and soul into the training and development of
choral music in the country.

The most precious feather in her cap perhaps is The Indonesian
Children's Choir and Youth Choir of over 300 boys and girls
between the ages of eight and 19 years. The idea is to instill a
sense of music, especially in those children who would otherwise
not be able to afford such an artistic and spiritual activity on
their own.

Popular pianist Anand Sukarlan is just 34 years old but has
already gained a great reputation even internationally as a
composer. He is also appreciated for encouraging other youngsters
to compose original music both for solo piano recitals and
orchestra.

Only adding to the sound of music here is the Indonesian
American Friendship Association International Choir, which is a
melange of both local and expatriate singers who first performed
in the country more than three decades ago.

In the meantime, Binu D.Sukaman, one of the country's best
sopranos and pianist Iravati M.Sudiarso are amongst those who
continue to educate young and older students alike in the
lifelong pleasures of classical music, making senior soprano
Aning Katamsi very optimistic about the future of western
classical music here.