Rafadi Hakim ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta

It is often thought that serious classical composers and teenagers are not meant for each other. However, put an enthusiastic conductor together with the 50 budding musicians in the Twilite Youth Orchestra, and nothing can excite them more than Wagner or Rossini.

“We want to enrich of our vocabulary of music. Our mission is to accustom young musicians in Indonesia to standard orchestral repertoires that are performed worldwide,” said Eric Awuy, Twilite Youth’s resident conductor, who has 30 years’ experience in conservatories and orchestras across Canada and other countries. Eric is presently the Twilite Orchestra’s principal trumpeter.

“The Great Overtures”, the concert that the orchestra will perform with the support of Grand Indonesia at Hotel Indonesia Kempinski’s Bali Room on Aug. 17th, features a repertoire of pieces that are challenging even according to the standards of professional Indonesian orchestras. On the concert’s list of pieces, Eric said, are the complete overtures to Wagner’s Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Rossini’s William Tell in addition to concertos by instrumental soloists.

“Those are all well-known opera overtures. One way of describing an overture is that it is a preview of the main themes that will appear in the opera itself,” Eric said. “Additionally, we are going to perform Brahm’s Academic Festival Overture, which the composer wrote as a musical ‘thank you’ for his honorary doctorate.” Thus, the famous graduation hymn Gaudeamus Igitur will be heard at the finale of the piece.

Andrea, one of Twilite Youth’s trombonists, said of Brahms’ challenging work that “it’s difficult to follow the tempo. At first I couldn’t find my way through the rest signs. However, I find it important that I don’t disappoint my orchestra friends.”

Her motivation is probably not unique among Twilite Youth’s members. Alvin, who juggles several instruments as a percussionist, added, “Although I’m not yet as good a musician as Addie MS, I always practice to become better. That’s why I’m always enthusiastic about being in this orchestra.”
Addie MS, the founder of Twilite Youth, believes such underlying motivation is the natural result of exposure to the music.

“There is a huge demand for qualified talents in the world of orchestral music, and I’m convinced that if young Indonesians are exposed to a musical education in a symphony orchestra, they will acquire a habit of work discipline, an ability to listen to others and a principle of appreciating diversity,” he said.

Eric Awuy said that Twilite Youth’s members have been attending regular Sunday rehearsals since the orchestra was first established in August 2004. Among its many achievements, the Twilite Youth staged a rare full performance of the opera La Bohème in December 2007 and accompanied the young cellist Harry Gilfillan from Britain in December 2008.

“The Twilite Youth Orchestra is a very open environment right from the beginning,” Eric said. “During auditions, we even install a screen between the musicians and the judges so that members are chosen purely because of ability. This continues to our seating auditions, in which our members are regularly evaluated as well.”

Unsurprisingly, some of the orchestra’s former members have ended up being enrolled in prestigious music institutions around the world. Among others, Stephanie Marcia, a bassoonist, is now studying music at the Peabody Conservatory of the John Hopkins University in the United States, and another former member, Ken Lila, is now a violin student at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental du Val de Bièvre in Cachan, France.

“Passion is the most important thing,” the conductor said. “We want to start a tradition of performing independently but with a dedication to expanding our musical boundaries. That is what we’d like to contribute to Indonesia’s cultural world.”

The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post.