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n Saturday, July 16th at 8 p.m., hundreds of youngsters flocked to the beautifully crafted Aula Simfonia Concert Hall in Kemayoran, Jakarta.

Bear in mind, they were coming neither for Avenged Sevenfold nor Katy Perry. The concert did not even involve electric guitars. In fact, it did not require any electricity other than lighting.

On the walls of the concert hall sit a hall of fame full of long-haired musicians, but not the familiar Kurt Cobain or Metallica. What the youngsters were lining up for was something else: the Twilite Orchestra’s Cantabile 2 concert, featuring the works of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Ravel and Dvorak (Beethoven, with his 18th century curly long hair, was featured on Aula Simfonia’s wall).

The Twilite Orchestra is probably the only orchestra in Indonesia that can stay cool, or in other words, is able to appeal to the young generation. As testimony, student tickets for the Cantabile 2 concert were sold out within three hours.

The reason for their success is simple: Twilite Orchestra listens to young people. Their celebrity conductor and music director, Addie MS, has over 79,000 followers on Twitter.

Through Twitter Addie MS keeps in touch with fans, asking them what they want to hear and giving them a chance to see a live performance of their favorite classical music.

That is why an uncommon theme was chosen for their concert in January of this year and why the orchestra is now back by popular demand. They performed music from Nodame Cantabile, a japanese manga cartoon and drama by Tomoko Ninomiya.

The story revolves around classical music as it features two distinct musical personalities: Megumi “Nodame” Noda, a talented but eccentric girl with a passion for piano, and Shinichi Chiaki, a genius conductor with multilingual talents and a fear of flying.

Nodame has a crush on Chiaki but their differences have kept them apart. As Nodame listens to a performance of the first movement of Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with its cool jazzy tunes, it reminds her of Chiaki.

She ascends into the magical world of a manga character in love, with bunnies emerging from the clouds as the harps and strings play the mystical tone.

At the concert, the bunnies were inspired by Kazuha Nakahara, piano program head at Pelita Harapan Conservatory University.

Memorizing the entire score, Kazuha gave her best performance along with the Twilite Orchestra when it got to the second movement: Adagio assai.

In contrast with the first, Adagio assai features soft, dreamy melodies that brought the audience to complete stillness, enjoying every bit of radiance that streamed from the orchestra.

The orchestra continued to mesmerize the audience by sheer accuracy and passion until the end. One teenager exclaimed as Addie MS lifted his baton to end the movement: “Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to breathe!”

This time, the Twilite Orchestra also provided a golden opportunity for their fans to perform at the concert. Two young musicians, Michelle Siswanto on violin and Felisitas Nesca Alma on piano, performed Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 “Spring” from Beethoven. There was even an audition through Twitter, with three violinists selected to perform at the concert. Their strength was demonstrated especially in the last performance, Symphony No. 9 in E minor Op. 95 “From the New World” by Antonin Dvorak.

The fourth movement, Allegro con fuoco, featuring a bombastic start by a powerful interplay of strings and brass, was performed superbly.

The heroic tone resonated well with the audience, as it continued with a slower woodwind section. Dvorak’s East European influence came to play as the movement drew to an end with its landmark energetic finale. The audience cheered the performance, giving standing ovations.

Nevertheless, there were improvements to be made. The audience must understand that although well meant, applause between movements can distract the orchestra and is thus not recommended.

The effort of the organizer to use laser pointers positively (unlike at a soccer match) to prevent recording of the performance was important to educate the audience. Not every show should be taken home: the gems of live performances are meant to be enjoyed on site.

With classical music, it is not just about the technical performance. It is more about the impression it has made and the deep passion for it.

As the great Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky once said, the apprehension of music is not transitory, but it is a perpetual reconcilement of life.

In other words, it is more than the usual ‘C-Am-Dm-G’ of today’s pop music, it involves true passion and dedication.