It was a full house Thursday evening in the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Central Jakarta.
More than 370 guests, mostly Koreans, sat at round tables, chatting while waiting for the meal, in what felt more like a family gathering than a charity event.
But the occasion was ostensibly rare and extraordinary.
They had gathered for a dinner and concert charity event to collect donations for earthquake victims in Padang, West Sumatra.
Seven weeks since the 7.9-magnitude quake devastated the region on Sept. 30 and drew a tidal wave of donations from the benevolent the world over, Thursday's charity event seemed a belated reaction to the good cause.
However, the president of event organizer Rotary Club Jakarta Sudirman, Lee Jihyun, made it clear the event had been timed perfectly.
When everyone else had begun turning their attention away from Padang, thinking the donations and relief efforts so far were sufficient, and when exposure from the media had died down, Lee said this was the critical moment to commence the real hard work.
"Many victims are still suffering on the streets," he said.
"Recovery efforts require a long time. Hopefully this will help the victims recover."
From the gathering, the organizers managed to raise Rp 250 million, which will be used to rebuild schools in Padang.
After the dinner came the highlight performances of the evening: pitch-perfect soprano Jeon Ji-Young and impeccable pianists Yoo Jin and Sim Hannah.
Jeon, trained at the Hochschule fur Musik in Munich, Germany, and the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria, sang familiar favorites, including Richard Strauss' "Ich Schwebe", "Morgen!" and "Nichts!", Giacomo Puccini's "Quando men vo" from the opera La Boheme and "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi.
Her virtuoso rendering of Mozart's opera Die Zauberfloete, in which she debuted in 1999 as the opera's Queen of the Night and played the role more than 100 times, made the night memorable. Her flute-like voice had dazzled the audience.
Following the intermission, Yoo Jin and Sim Hannah mesmerized the guests with their performance of Johannes Brahms' "Hungarian Dances for Four Hands".
The atmosphere at the event was finely expressed in the touching moments when Jeon sang Albert Hay Malotte's "The Lord's Prayer", popularized by Sarah Brightman, and renowned Korean composer Hong Nan-Pa's "Love".
The solemnity of "The Lord's Prayer" and the intimacy of "Love" reflected well the prayer for the quake victims in Padang from the loving hearts of the Koreans who raised money to relieve their plight.
What could possibly be stronger?
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