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IT’S December, it’s almost Christmas, and “one of the world’s leading pianists … at the forefront of championing new piano music” according to Sydney Morning Herald is giving two online piano concerts from two extreme spots of Indonesia.
After a series of phenomenally successful online concerts produced by the “Budaya Saya” channel at YouTube (owned by the Directorat General of Culture led by Dr. Hilmar Farid), Ananda Sukarlan will not only celebrate Christmas, but also unite differences, promote tolerance and introduces the beauty of Indonesia’s landscape and rich history and culture in these two YouTube concerts.
“Indonesia has the world’s biggest moslem population, with more than 90% of its population embracing the Islam religion, and it’s our task, not only the government’s, to unite all differences of race, all orientations whether it’s political, opinion and even sexual, and of course religious beliefs”, said Ananda.
The first will be from Manokwari, West Papua, which is widely known as the Gospel City, since it was the first town where the Christian missionaries from Germany landed in Papua. He performs with Sepnath Yambres Leunupun, a Papuan baritone singer who is now studying at the Satya Wacana University in Salatiga (Central Java), as well as the well known soprano Mariska Setiawan who was classically trained in Broadway New York and Salzburg (Austria).
They sing music based on poems by Indonesian poets Hasan Aspahani, Medy Lukito, Sapardi Djoko Damono, Adimas Immanuel and M. Aan Mansyur. “Manokwari: Beauty from the East” will be premiered on December 11th at 7 p.m. West Indonesia Time
December 22nd is also Indonesia’s National Mother’s Day, so from the historical site of the Sriwijaya kingdom Ananda Sukarlan and friends pay tribute to mothers and women in general. Muaro Jambi in East Sumatra used to be the capital city of the oldest known kingdom in Indonesia starting from the 7th to the 13th century. It was also the center of Buddhism in Asia, where religious leaders from countries such as India, China and Nepal came to deepen their knowledge here.
The talented young tenor Nikodemus Lukas (whose hugely impressive performance from Flores earlier this month has won great public acclaim) has chosen Ananda’s songs exclusively based on female poets. The first is “On Virtue”, based on a poem by Phyllis Wheatley who died in her 30s in 1784. Wheatley was the first Afro-American poet with a published book of poetry.
Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write and encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.
Nikodemus also sings music based on poems by Indonesian female poets Helvy Tiana Rosa, Medy Lukito and Emi Suy. Meanwhile, pianist Kevin Trisna who just graduated with “summa cum laude” from the Robert Schumann Hochschuele fuer Musik in Dusseldorf performs Sukarlan’s “Variations on ‘Kasih Ibu’ ” (Mother’s Love, a very popular children song by S.M. Mochtar) and the world premiere of Sukarlan’s Prelude & Fugue on “Angso Duo” (a popular folktune of Jambi).
They will also accompany dancers Ari Prajanegara and Althea Bestari. The program certainly contains some virtuosic performance of some Christmas songs, as well as a special section for Italy as a gratitude from Sukarlan who was just bestowed the knighthood “Cavaliere Ordine della Stella” from that country. The date of the YouTube premiere will be on December 22nd at 7 p.m. West Indonesia Time. [traveltext.id/photo special]
