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A Moonwalk down the lit tiles with Resonanz

It’s black, it’s white: Singers (left to right) Ansaly Panjaitan, Jacqueline Chia Hartono, Greta Nyangoen Oendoen and Vanessa Octavia Argo wow the crowd with Michael Jackson's 1991 hit "Black and White"

Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, December 7, 2018

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A Moonwalk down the lit tiles with Resonanz

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t’s black, it’s white: Singers (left to right) Ansaly Panjaitan, Jacqueline Chia Hartono, Greta Nyangoen Oendoen and Vanessa Octavia Argo wow the crowd with Michael Jackson's 1991 hit "Black and White".

The Resonanz Music Studio closed an eventful year with a show that pays a loving tribute to an immortal pop icon.

The Beat It: A Tribute to Michael Jackson show is the perfect bookend for the Resonanz Music Studio, which has achieved various victories throughout the year.

At the show, held at Teater Jakarta hall in the Taman Ismail Marzuki cultural center in Central Jakarta on Nov. 29, Avip conducted several orchestras to bring forth Jackson’s music in a new form.

The choice of reinterpreting Jackson’s music came mainly from the personal desire of conductor and Resonanz director Avip Priatna, who holds Jackson in high regard in his heart.  

The conductor holds Jackson as a one-of-a-kind genius in the music world and a performer that has the most distinctive character ever displayed, mostly due to the extent of humanitarian messages and the distinctive shaping of Jackson’s music to establish messages.

Through the great and fun performances of the mostly young talents, they effectively slugged frequent baby-boomer notions that “kids today will never appreciate the talents of Michael Jackson” in the face.

Through their respectable performances, the kids knew and loved the man as much as the generation who grew up with him in the 1980s.

Pulling the strings: Event mastermind and Resonanz Music studio head Avip Priatna conducts the orchestra.
Pulling the strings: Event mastermind and Resonanz Music studio head Avip Priatna conducts the orchestra.

The setlist of the night comprised 18 of Jackson’s biggest hits, such as as “Beat It”, “Heal the World”, “Billie Jean”, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”, “We Are the World”, “Thriller” and “Black and White”, along with two Jackson Five songs “I Want You Back” and “ABC”.

The songs were performed and accompanied by a slew of ensembles, including the Jakarta Concert Orchestra, the Batavia Madrigal Singers and the Resonanz Children’s Choir, as well as musicians Farman Purnama, Lisa Depe, Yemima Madeleine Rebecca, Ansaly Panjaitan and Alin Pontoh to name a few.

The Resonanz Children’s Choir’s performance at the tribute was a fitting end to a fruitful year, which also included winning the European Grand Prix in Choral Singing in Maribor, Slovenia, atop of several other victories in 2017 in Italy and Spain.

And to also properly pay tribute to the man who was king, Jackson’s iconic fashion sense was worn by the dancers that accompanied the arrangements and even the performers themselves.

The Resonanz Children’s Choir was decked in black leather jackets and black fedoras akin to Jackson’s fashion, and the dancing singing team of Ansaly Panjaitan, Greta Nyangoen Oendoen, Jacqueline Chiara Hartono and Vanessa Octavia Argo performed in the white suit, black pants and black fedora seen in the video for “Black and White”.

Tribute was a tough hill to climb due to the amount of energy that Jackson exuded on stage and in his songs. To stray below his standard is simply unacceptable. But the show’s performers emit their energy as high as they can, which practically begs the audience for more chances to dance around.

Thriller of a night: The Batavia Madrigal Singers recreate a scene from the legendary “Thriller” music video.
Thriller of a night: The Batavia Madrigal Singers recreate a scene from the legendary “Thriller” music video.

The highest point of the high-energy show came obviously from the Batavia Madrigal Singers, who managed to sustain the interest of the crowd with a dazzling fashion.

Their performance of “Thriller” was suitably paired with the iconic zombie lurch and styles of the song’s famous music video, while their performance of “Beat It” exuded the sassy and tough-guy energy that Jackson had solidified for himself in that song’s video.  

At times, the audience of varying ages both grooved to the exciting rhythms and also were touched at the idea of remembering Jackson’s legacy and music itself.

The Gary, Indiana-born popstar passed away at the age of 50 in 2009, which left millions of fans devastated.

At one point in his life in the years leading up to his death, especially during the relative musical inactivity between 2002 and 2008, Jackson felt that nobody listened to his music anymore and was struck by the fact that a club full of young patrons that he visited in Las Vegas one day was playing his music in 2008.

Even until now, the man is the subject of countless tribute shows and countless amounts of airplay, sales and (more recently) streaming figures.

The Resonanz show is only one of those tributes and it is a continuing sign that the man is still alive in many people’s hearts.

On their toes: The Batavia Madrigal Singers do Michael Jackson's legendary toe stand.
On their toes: The Batavia Madrigal Singers do Michael Jackson's legendary toe stand.

— Photos courtesy of ImageDynamics

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