Young people the stars of concert

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 03/01/2003 8:36 AM  |  Life

Yohanes Bintang Prakarsa, Contributor, Jakarta

Classical music can be fun and enjoyable for everybody. For example, it can intrigue and stimulate children and young people, especially when children also participate in the performance of the music and that music was composed with children in mind.

In the Classics for Young People program being held at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta this Saturday, you will be able to appreciate all of these things: young people performing music composed with their age group in mind.

Directed by Avip Priatna, the Jakarta Chamber Orchestra will perform the so-called Toy Symphony in C Major by Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), the father and one-time manager of Wolfgang Amadeus. This is a collection of light pieces, to be played by a conventional orchestra with several toy musical instruments. Nobody knows exactly for sure who composed the pieces, written perhaps as promotional gimmicks by manufacturers of toy instruments.

Legend has it that Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), another potential candidate for the composer, was inspired to write the piece after he bought some toys in the market and that he composed it to please the children at Esterhaz Palace.

For the main course, the program will feature two extraordinarily talented performers, Sarah Nakamura, 10, who will play the solo piano in Haydn's Keyboard Concerto in D Major, and Sherina Munaf, 13, who will narrate the story in Peter and The Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953).

Haydn's concerto is full of tuneful themes. The fizzy first movement is deceivingly simple yet full of surprises, including some intricate solo passages and chromaticism. The second is somewhat sedate and the third is a vigorous rendering of a Hungarian dance.

Sarah has studied the piano for just five years but her repertoire already includes standard works such as Bach's French Suite No. 5 and Italian Concerto, sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven, and Chopin's mazurkas and waltzes.

She was introduced to the piano by her mother. When she was five she started taking piano lessons from Siti Noersiah before continuing with Iswargia R. Sudarno. She has also studied the violin with I G. Bagus Wiswakarma. Making quick advances, she has been admitted to several master classes by visiting concert pianists and teachers, including Hansjorg Koch, Martyn van den Hoek, Bas Verheijden, Ananda Sukarlan, Geoffrey Saba and Stephan Imorde.

As a concert performer, Sarah appeared in several public recitals before giving her first solo recital at Erasmus Huis in March last year. She attends the Jakarta Japanese School, where she accompanies and conducts the school choir.

Prokofiev's work for narrator and orchestra, composed in 1936, has delighted children for years. The story, about a boy named Peter who manages to catch a wolf, was written by the composer himself. He uses instruments to represent the characters and the episodes in the story: the bird (flute), the duck (oboe), the wolf (horns), Peter (strings), gunfire (kettledrums), thus introducing children to various orchestral instruments.

The narrator, Sherina, is a multitalented, award-winning artist. She studies ballet at the Namarina Dance Academy and has danced in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite with the academy (2001).

Her movie Petualangan Sherina (Sherina's Adventure, 2000) has been watched by millions and she was awarded at the 45th Asia-Pacific Film Festival in Hanoi, Vietnam, for her role in it. She takes lessons in classical and jazz piano and has appeared on stage playing piano. But above all else, she sings. She first gained popularity through her first album, Andai Aku Besar Nanti (When I Grown Up), whose melodious tunes and orchestral accompaniments stood out among other commercially produced songs for children.

She has since collaborated with artists as diverse as Addie MS and the Twilite Orchestra and Irish boyband Westlife. She has been given multiple awards twice (1999 and 2000) by Anugerah Musik Indonesia.

Classics for Young People will be held at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, Jl. Gedung Kesenian No. 1, on March 1 at 3 p.m. (for students) and 8 p.m. (for general public). Admission: Rp 40,000 (3 p.m.); Rp 100,000 and Rp 75,000 (8 p.m.).

Contact: Gedung Kesenian Jakarta at tel: 3808283, 3441892, or gkj@pacific.net.id; Jakarta Chamber Orchestra with Pepi at 0815 8752443, Ona at 0812 8040657.

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