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FOR the first time, “Proklamasi” which is the Declaration of Independence of Indonesia is set to music, composed by Indonesian composer Ananda Sukarlan. And it is premiered on the most iconic place.
Sukarno (formerly Soekarno) was considered very dangerous to the Dutch colonialists so he had to be put exile in the small town of Ende on the island of Flores for 4 years, from 1934 to 1938. In 1945 he was the person who formulated our Declaration Of Independence, and became the first President of Indonesia.
It was in Ende that he thought about what was to become the nation’s ideology, Pancasila, consisting of 5 points. That thought became the prelude to an independent nation that Sukarno dreamed of.
Ananda Sukarlan will premiere his “Teks Proklamasi” from the garden of Sukarno’s exile house in Ende as part of his online concert “Soekarno : A Hero in Exile”. The singer will be one of Indonesia’s prominent young tenor Nikodemus Lukas “Niko”, and Ananda had a strong reason to ask him to premiere this.
“Niko is of Chinese descendant. I don’t know what his religion is, but certainly it’s not Islam, which is the religion of more than 90% of Indonesian” said the piano maestro.
“This is my statement to express that independence and freedom in Indonesia don’t belong only to the so called “native”, and to the majority. It belongs to everyone born and living in Indonesia, and I am sure Niko feels and love Indonesia more than many of them who claim to be native but misuse Indonesia’s resources for their own purposes, such as corruption.”
Ananda’s outspoken views has always strongly influenced his musical works. It is also through his music that he opened many young people’s mind to tolerance and bridging differences of opinions, cultures and religion. It is on this reason that the Italian government decorated the Italian Knighthood “Cavaliere Ordine della Stella d’Italia” this month November, and due to the social distancing, the official decoration will be on November 17th by the Italian Ambassador to Indonesia, Benedetto Latteri to this Indonesian composer & pianist whom the Sydney Morning Herald has hailed as “one of the world’s leading pianists … at the forefront of championing new piano music”.
Ordine della Stella are the country’s highest honors bestowed every year by the President of the Republic of Italy to 80-100 individuals who have collaborated and solidified friendly relationships and cooperation between Italy and foreign countries in the fields of science, technology, education, social, economy and the arts. The Ordine della Stella d’Italia was established in 2011. This award was reformed from the Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana, established after World War II to recognize individuals who were contributing to the reconstruction of Italy.
In Ananda Sukarlan’s video tribute to Soekarno, Nikodemus Lukas will also sing Ananda’s songs based on the favorite artists of Sukarno at his time, Sitor Situmorang and painter/poet Sudjojono, both accused of being communists. Ananda will also perform as a pianist his rendering on songs by Indonesia’s great songwriters Kusbini and Liberty Manik.
This video will be premiered at the YouTube channel “Budaya Saya” on Tuesday December 1st, at 7 p.m. West Indonesia Time, or 1 p.m. Central European Time. Ananda also invited Canho Pasirua, a young talented pianist native of Ende to join him in this concert. [traveltext.id/photo special]
