New Jakarta Ensemble to perform in New York

JAKARTA (JP): New Jakarta Ensemble will make its North American debut with a unique mix of East and West at the Asia Society in New York next week.

Using drums, wood blocks, Tibetan singing bowls, bells, flutes, gongs and other instruments from Indonesia and beyond -- including the Arabic region, China, the Caribbean and Africa -- the group will perform on May 21.

This group of traditionally trained musicians from West Sumatra, led by internationally acclaimed composer Tony Prabowo, performs new music that combines both Eastern and Western elements.

The concert will include a work-in-progress excerpt of Empty Tradition/City of Peonies, a dance theater piece featuring a special guest, Chinese-born American choreographer/dancer Yin Mei, according to a statement from the Asia Society made available to The Jakarta Post.

While indigenous musical cultures are faltering in many Asian nations, in Indonesia, traditional music is flourishing. As a result, there are relatively few composers writing new contemporary music. Among the most prominent is Tony Prabowo.

Born in Malang, Indonesia, in 1956, he became involved with music at the age of eight. Ten years after he began to study violin, he started composing, including a collaboration with Slamet Abdul Sjukur, the acclaimed senior Indonesian composer.

In the 1980s, Tony worked intensively with dancers and choreographers in Indonesia and Japan. He also composed music for theater, including The Ritual of Solomon's Children at the New York International Festival of the Arts in 1988. His composition Dongeng Sebelum Tidur (A Tale Before Sleep) was given its American premiere by the New Julliard Ensemble in 1996. It also premiered his most recent work Autumnal Steps: Homage to Takemitsu, in February, 1997.

The New Jakarta Ensemble was formed in 1996 when choreographer Linda Hoemar asked Tony Prabowo to compose a percussion piece for her dance performance Lalu? (So?).

Tony asked Epi Martison, a choreographer and percussionist specializing in traditional music of West Sumatra, to join him. Four other young traditional West Sumatran percussionists, Musliwardinal, Armen Suwandi, Anusirwan and Demal Hendri Caniago, also became involved.

All of them received formal training at the Academy of Traditional Music in Padang. The group first performed during the Indonesian Dance Festival in Jakarta in 1996. In May, 1997, the group was invited to perform at the Sufi Music Festival in London and was joined by the extraordinary vocalist Nyak Ina Raseuki.

The New Jakarta Ensemble performs contemporary music created through a process of directed improvisation led by composer Tony Prabowo. In this way their traditional music training shapes the music while it is still being "composed" in rehearsal. The music is then set and finely honed to the most minute detail.

"We use the traditional oral approach of conveying the text to the players," the composer said. "There is a basic concept on which they build, with oral interactions setting the tone and the role of each musician.

"Western music is a world of composers, but the traditional Eastern one is of players."

Rachel Cooper, assistant director of performing arts at the Asia Society and director for the project, said: "Tony Prabowo is unique in his ability to write new music for western music ensembles as well as traditional Indonesian musicians. The music of the New Jakarta Ensemble does not fall into a single category of East or West or traditional music. It is something completely new."

For one segment of their performance at the Asia Society, the Ensemble will feature a sneak preview of an evening-length dance theater Empty Tradition/City of Peonies.

The project was commissioned by the Asia Society through a grant from Meet the Composer. The full production will be shown in October.

The dance theater's commissioning is made possible in part by a grant from Meet the Composer/International Creative Collaborations program, in partnership with the Ford Foundation. (sim)