Sapto keeps gamelan festival going

Ridlo Aryanto, Contributor, Yogyakarta

Jl. Gayam, a "cultural area" near Yogyakarta palace will be closed between July 11 and July 14, 2002 for a major event.

Eighteen local and foreign gamelan orchestras will perform on an open-air stage at this year's Yogyakarta Gamelan Orchestra Festival 2002, an annual international cultural event which has taken place since 1995.

"We wanted to perform gamelan music to a broader community, so we moved the festival to Jl. Gayam in 2001," said Sapto Rahardjo, a gamelan composer as well as the pioneer of the Yogyakarta Gamelan Orchestra Festival.

"Our dream is to convert Jl. Gayam into a cultural area, a place where creative ideas will emerge in compositions and presentation so that public appreciation for gamelan orchestras can be given a boost. Please make use of my studio at Jl. Gayam No. 16 as the center of this activity."

Sapto was not so happy in 1986 to learn that a World Gamelan Festival was being held in Canada in conjunction with the World Tourism Expo.

"I became annoyed to learn that the festival, in which dozens of countries took part in, was held in the Indonesian pavilion at the expo. Why should an event of this stature be held abroad? Is it really beyond us to organize one like it at home? It inspired me to organize a similar event in Yogyakarta. I wanted Yogyakarta to become internationally famous as a center of Javanese culture and gamelan," he said.

Unfortunately, many constraints stood in the way before he started it, one of which was the absence of an international network.

Sapto is a self-made gamelan expert born in Jakarta on Feb. 16, 1955. He began playing the musical instrument when he was eight years old.

When he was a member of the 1993 Yogyakarta Arts Festival organizing committee, he invited his masters in gamelan, KRT. Warsitodiningrat and RM Wasisto Soerjodiningrat to play a classical gamelan composition and his own composition Jaya Manggala Gita using electronic gamelan instruments.

Sapto played his own electronic gamelan composition.

The unusual gamelan performance, which was included in the festival, apparently drew much public attention. This boosted Sapto's self-confidence. In July 1994, he pioneered the Yogyakarta Contemporary Gamelan Festival and along with Slamet Abdul Syukur from Bandung, Ben Pasaribu from Medan and Djaduk Ferianto from Yogyakarta succeeded in blending three different genres in a single repertoire.

This success was an eye-opener for the Yogyakarta administration to see that a gamelan festival had enough potential to be developed into a serious event. Sultan Hamengkubuwono X asked Sapto to organize the event so that it would attract international participants.

"I found out in the 1990s there were 23 countries that had already included the art of gamelan in their university study programs," said Sapto, who is secretary-general of the Indonesian Composers Association.

In 1995, Sapto received aid worth Rp 35 million from the Yogyakarta provincial administration. With this money he organized the first Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival.

With the help of the Art Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, he invited gamelan musicians from all over the world to join the festival.

Since its opening year the festival has brought together Indonesia's classical and contemporary gamelan musicians like Sawung Jabo, Suka Hardjana, I Wayan Sadra and Irwansyah Harahap, and their foreign counterparts such as Alex Grillo of France, Dieter Marck of Germany, Alex Dhea and Djody Diamond of the U.S., Dzul Kabbul Jalil of Singapore, and some composers from the Music School of New Zealand-based Wellington University.

The festival, which has also seen the participation of karawitan, or traditional gamelan music groups, has also served as a means to improve the appreciation of gamelan for elementary school children and members of Dharma Wanita, the organization of government officials' wives.

"This festival is not a contest but a venue for world gamelan music buffs to interact with one another. It is an arena where they can play together to promote the art and improve their sense of belonging to gamelan, regardless of race," said Sapto.

Unfortunately, the Yogyakarta administration stopped providing financial assistance to the organizing committee of the festival in 2000. That is why Sapto had to be resourceful in raising funds to ensure the event continued to see the light of day.

"This year alone, we will need about Rp 180 million to finance the three-day performance. Luckily, many former participants at home and abroad have given donations through the Forum of Friends of the Yogyakarta Gamelan Orchestra Festival.

Djody Diamond of the American Gamelan Institute, for example, has donated several hundred U.S. dollars. Many foreign and domestic gamelan aficionados have also donated money to the committee.

When we are really in a tight spot, we try to find a cigarette company to sponsor us. We know many will protest but the survival of this festival is more important than anything else. Everything runs on the principle of "from them, by them and for them".

As the founder of the festival, I will simply watch how things evolve," Sapto said, bursting into a hearty fit of laughter.

A drop-out of the Indonesian Film and Dramatic Art Institute (ASDRAFI), Sapto is indeed a true gamelan composer. He has performed his compositions across the country since 1978, the latest being Amazing Gray, which was performed at Prambanan Temple in April 2002.

As a composer, Sapto may be better known abroad than at home. He has teamed up with French artists Andress Joume and Miqueu Montanaro, to record a series of gamelan albums, which Harmonia Mondde has distributed across Europe.

Between 1995 and 1999, he had four best-selling albums to his credit.

"In 2000, the French Cultural Center (CCF) imported these compact discs and sold them in Indonesia at one-third of the original price. I give my hat off to the CCF for taking this initiative," he said.