Sapto keeps gamelan festival going

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.