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Christina The: Ready to return to music
Christina The may not yet be a household name in her home country, but the Jakarta-bred soprano has made a name for herself as one of Southeast Asiaâs most promising opera singers
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Christina The may not yet be a household name in her home country, but the Jakarta-bred soprano has made a name for herself as one of Southeast Asia's most promising opera singers.
Soprano Christina The received her master's degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London and has performed professional recitals in various parts of the world, including Singapore and Australia, as part of a variety of ensemble groups and as a solo act.
Christina has also performed in front of former Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and sung a number of times alongside the Surabaya Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Solomon Tong.
Her international operatic debut was with the Singapore Lyric Opera as Zweite Zofe in Mozart's The Magic Flute.
Having taken an extended break to take care of her family ' her businessman Indonesian husband and two young children, she recently played a homecoming solo show at a university in Tangerang, Banten.
The now Perth-based soprano finds herself rejuvenated and ready to return to music. It is something she looks forward to coming back to after a few years of motherhood ' though assures fans that taking care of her household and children has been a rewarding experience.
'My biggest achievements thus far would be my humble day-to-day juggling of mothering my two children and singing-related activities without the support structure of family or permanent domestic helpers. It is not easy,' she says.
Christina started off as a young ballerina, which she learned from the age of 4 until her teen years. She quickly discovered, however, that her true talents lay elsewhere.
'It was not until later in my teens, I discovered that my voice has a natural vibrato, and I started singing musical numbers such as The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon and so on, on many occasions. Soon after that my family moved to Singapore, and I started taking regular lessons in classical singing,' she explains.
Having moved to Australia in the early 2000s to study finance, Christina continued her singing studies and entered a variety of competitions, including one where she was nominated as one of the 10 best young and upcoming classical singers by the Australian National Association of Singing Teachers (ANATS).
Christina eventually went back to work for her dad on his family business for a couple of years before resuming training again in Italy in 2006, included stints at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena under the renowned baritone Maestro Renato Bruson.
She also underwent what she calls 'an exciting yet strenuous time' at Mirella Freni's academy, Centro Universale di Bel Canto (Center for Bel Canto Singing), under Maestro Sergio Bertocchi.
'The heat wave was on throughout Europe, and the training was very intense. We'd train the same aria day-in day-out in order to achieve a desired level of perfection on so many layers of the music,' she says of her time in Europe.
'Italian maestros are generally very strict and very dedicated to their craft. It is common for female singers to cry everyday ' I did not but I nearly passed out from fright. However, when the courses are over you'll discover their genial and fun loving nature. The old Maestro Bruson could still lift me up with both hands!'
Christina plans on returning to Jakarta sometime in April 2016 to perform, on behalf of Lions Club International, a concert in aid of children with a physical disability. The show might involve a chamber or full orchestra, or perhaps a choir, as there are a variety of Indonesian pop singers.
In July, Christina will also take part in the Musik Klasik Indonesia (MKI) concert, which came together thanks to the initiative of Indonesian concert pianist, Teguh Sukaryo.
For Christina, her talent is something that she hopes will inspire other classical-based singers in Indonesian to take the international leap needed to stand out.
'I feel a certain responsibility to share the knowledge I've gathered from my travels with younger students of music and to the fans of operatic and classical vocal music in Indonesia, both in a performing and educative sense,' she says.
'As opposed to the rapidly growing musical theatre audience, the Indonesian opera scene is still relatively young, and therefore many can still be encouraged to participate.'
' Photos courtesy of Christina The
