Jakarta’s music lovers enjoyed a rich slice of Croatian culture in the form of Croatian folk songs on Wednesday night at the Usmar Ismail Hall in South Jakarta.

The amazing voices of Klapa Tragos were showcased to fine effect on the beautiful night when the nine-member all-male group made its Indonesian debut with more than a dozen songs, both traditional and modern.

“Don’t confuse us with the Indonesian word kelapa, which means coconut. Our Klapa is nothing to do with coconuts. Klapa is a group of singers who perform a cappella singing,” Croatian Ambassador to Indonesia Zeljko Cimbur told The Jakarta Post, smiling.

Klapa, in musical terms, is a homophonic, or chordal, style of singing — with a unique vocal composition of first tenor, second tenor, baritone, first bass and second bass — which evolved from a traditional form of singing to popular but organized singing.

There was a palpable chemistry among the nine handsome Croatian guys, including one on guitar, as they transported the audience to another world with a lovely combination of perfect sounds and melodies.

The audience was stunned when they sang Indonesia’s popular song “Selendang Sutra” (Silk Shawl) without the text along with Indonesia’s well-known singer/songwriter, Moza Simanjuntak, in perfect harmony.

“These Croatian singers have a lot of energy. I am honored to be performing with them today,” said Moza, the 1998 winner of the Asia Bagus International Singing Festival.

Unsurprisingly, the Croatian singers don’t understand all the words of “Selendang Sutra”. But, music is a universal language.

“Likewise, we don’t know the meaning of the Croatian songs but we all enjoyed them. That’s the magic of music,” Moroccan Ambassador to Indonesia Mohamed Majdi told the Post when asked for his opinion of the concert.

The members of Klapa Tragos were very happy to perform in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.

“We are very happy and excited to perform here in Asia. This is our first performance in Indonesia. After this, we will be performing in Bandung and once again in Jakarta,” Tomislav Jakus, a member of the group, said on the sidelines of the concert.

“We especially thank ambassador Cimbur for providing this opportunity”.

The Croatian singers are slated to perform in a special show in Bandung on Saturday. “They are to going perform at the Angklung Festival, which is being organized to celebrate the second anniversary of UNESCO’s declaration citing the angklung [bamboo tubal instrument] as part of the world’s cultural heritage in 2010,” Cimbur said.

Klapa Tragos, according to Tomislav, has already performed in Australia, Chile, France, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Founded in 1996 by musical maestro Jakov Koscin with young musical high school students in Trogir, one of the most beautiful cities in Dalmatia, Klapa Tragos was the youngest Klapa in Croatia at that time.

“Their main goal was to preserve traditional folk songs from Central Dalmatia and Trogir,” Cimbur said.

Within one year, they shot to fame in Croatia and abroad.

According to the group’s website klapa-tragos.com, the group performed at the 1997 Marco Polo Festival and won third prize. It also won the Trogir Award in 1999 and an award for the Preservation of Croatian Cultural Heritage for 2005/2006. In 2008, they released their first album, Nevera.

The Croatian Embassy also provided an opportunity for members of the Indonesian Street Children Organization to perform onstage.

People who missed the show can still catch the group at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel. For further details, contact the hotel or the Croatian Embassy.

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