TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Open-air chamber ensemble in Jakarta's Menteng is about more than music
For some of its members, the Taman Suropati Chamber ensemble is much more than a place to learn the violin or play in an orchestra. It's the starting point for a better life.
Change Size
Members of the Taman Suropati Chamber (TSC) ensemble practice at their regular gathering place in the Taman Suropati park in Central Jakarta on Sunday. (JP/Tirta Umbas)
F
or some of its members, the Taman Suropati Chamber (TSC) community is not only a place to learn the violin or to play in an orchestra, but the starting point for a better life.
Hendra Surya Agustian is a violin instructor and member of TSC, whose fortune turned after joining the group, which gets together at the Taman Suropati park in Menteng, Central Jakarta, for open-air practice sessions.
"I had come from my home village to look for opportunities in Jakarta. At one point, I was selling pecel lele [fried catfish], and begging for a short while," said the native of Bojonegoro, East Java, on Sunday.
With neither skills nor interest in playing the violin, he ended up taking a job fixing them, which slowly generated within him an interest in the wooden string instrument.
