Jakarta has new venue for good music

JAKARTA (JP): Classical music, a struggling art in this country, may get a much welcomed shot in the arm when, on Sept. 17, the Bulevar Park Royal Hotel, Jl. S. Parman, West Jakarta, opens it doors to commence a program which, it is hoped, will become a regular feature of its activities: performances of good music.

They differ from the run-of-the-mill presentations of classical music in other hotels, where small groups are installed in lobbies, playing for a handful of people who half-listen to the music. The performances at Park Royal will be given in a proper concert-hall setting in the hotel's main auditorium, and will have an additional advantage for audiences, who will be able to avail themselves of the hotel's outlets offering refreshments before and after a concert as well as during intermissions.

The first concert on Sept. 17 is also something of an effort to revive whatever is left of an orchestra that has been dormant for a number of years, the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra (JSO).

Not the whole orchestra will be performing on that evening but a group that consists of members of JSO led by conductor Yudianto Hinupurwadi, who is no stranger to the world of classical music activities in Jakarta because he used to be JSO's conductor. The new musical group, some 25 members, is known as the Jakarta Symphonic Ensemble and includes teachers and advanced students of the Indonesian Institute of Fine Arts in Yogyakarta. Yudianto Hinupurwadi is also a teacher of woodwind instruments, flute and clarinet in particular.

It is the hotel's general manager, Peter Hassler and his wife Laura, who studies the flute with Yudianto, who are the main initiators of the series of musical events. The first program, as well as those that follow, are designed as charity events, and proceeds of the Sept. 17 event will go to handicapped children.

The program will offer works by Mozart, Doppler and Vivaldi. The major presentation is a concerto for two pianos by Mozart, featuring noted pianist Irawati Sudiarso. The second pianist is none other than her daughter, Aisha Ariadna, who completed her studies recently at the Manhattan School of Music and has already gained considerable experience as a performer in various countries.

Other compositions featuring soloists are the Hungarian Pastorale by Doppler, a work for flute solo and orchestra, and the Concerto in C-Major for two trumpets by Vivaldi.

For further information about this charity concert, please contact Henni at 56960888, extension 7606. (Gus Kairupan)