ASAH Indonesian Tour II
March 25 - May 19

Indonesian pianist, ARY SUTEDJA-DAVID obtained her Master of Music degree in piano performance in the United States at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1992 where she studied with Reynaldo Reyes. She graduated summa cum laude, and received a number of awards including “Outstanding Achievement in Music”; winner of the Peggy and the Yale Gordon Foundation Scholarship; and winner of the Talent Award Competition.

She subsequently undertook Postgraduate studies at St Petersburg Conservatory in Russia under the guidance of Sofia Vakman, Sergey Uryvaey and Valery Visneysky. Her teachers in Indonesia included Iravati M. Sudiarso.  While living in Germany, she toured as piano accompanist with the Bremen Opera Theatre working under Kapellmeister Gunther Bauernschenk. Ary returned to Indonesia in 1993.

In 1994 she co-founded Classical Nuances with Soun Youn Yoon (Oboist / Korea) and Sharon Eng (Viola / USA).  They have performed concerts in Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, England, Greece, Kuwait, Australia and United States in United Nation Head Quarter NY. In 1999, together with her husband Mikhail David, Ary founded JakArt, an International Arts, Cultural and Educational Festival held in Jakarta during the entire month of June 2001, June 2002 and June 2003 where Ary held the position of  Secretary-General. The JakArt Festivals have hosted over 1,000 performances and exhibitions from world-class to spontaneous expression by local and foreign artists.  These concerts have taken place in over 300 venues at locations in and around Jakarta, ranging from the conventional to the alternative, and involving over 1,000 enthusiastic volunteers from all walks of life, and many local and international artists.

In 2004, JakArt organized Festival à la Carte, a traveling Festival that traveled to 15 cities in Java and Bali.  Festival à la Carte was followed by a similar cultural program arranged by JakArt that traveled to 12 cities in the Peloponese (Greece) and in Athens during the Cultural Olympiad Athens 2004.  JakArt has been endorsed by UNESCO since 2002 and is a founding member of the Confederation of the Association of Asian Performing Arts Festival (AAPAF), other members which include the Singapore Arts Festival, Shanghai Arts Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the Adelaide Arts Festival among many.  Ary, who has been an elected member of the Jakarta Art Council for period of 2003 - 2006, was also a member of the Indonesian National Committee for the Cultural Olympiad (2002 – 2004).  She is currently an executive council member of AAPAF and continuously performing as a solo pianist and as a chamber musician.

Cellist, Asep Hidayat, was known as actively giving recitals and concerts either for solo cello or chamber music both in the motherland and in foreign countries, namely Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and Japan.  Repertoires he always plays are varied, from Renaissance age to Contemporary one.  After obtaining his Master Degree in the field of Performance in 2002 in Osaka Kyoiku, he joined the Professional Orchestra in Japan “Heinrich Suitzt Ensemble” (1999 – 2002).  In the same city, he also performed in some festivals like Osaka Cassal Festival, and Osaka Music Festival.  He performed spectacularly together with 1000 Cellists from all over the world in Kobe.  Asep was elected three times to join the ASEAN Youth Music Workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Jakarta.  He was also appointed to become the Cello Tutor in the workshop in Bangkok. He performed together with the Australian Virtuoso Ensemble in Townsville Queensland Australia.

Firstly learning cello at the Musical High School of Yogyakarta (1982 – 1986) under the guidance of Yoesbar Djaelani, he continued his musical study at the Indonesian Art Institute of Yogyakarta (1986-1991) under the guidance of Rene Bermann, the cellist from the Netherlands, and he also joined the Master Class in Australia with Tess Remy Schumacher and Prof. DR. Alexander Ivaskin.  At present, Asep teaches the Major Cello at the Indonesian Art Institute of Yogyakarta and the Jakarta International Music School.

Mikhail David was born in 1960 in West Africa of Cypriot and Greek parents, grew up in Europe and studied in North America where he obtained a Bachelor’s in Athropology and Sociology (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Since 1982 Mikhail has been living in Jakarta, Indonesia, dividing his time between Indonesia and Europe.

Mikhail’s early visual art works tended towards minimalism shown in a number of solo and collective exhibitions in various countries including Greece, Italy, Canada, Australia, Indonesia…… During the 1990’s Mikhail became interested in installation works and begun creating “atmospheric inter-discipline interactive environments” evoking all of the Five Senses. For this purpose Mikhail created a special “space”, called “The Stage” (1991-1996), which became known as “the vanguard of the avant-garde”, a landmark of the Art Scene of Jakarta hosting over 3,000 local and visiting artists. During that same period Mikhail working with his friends, acclaimed Jazz musicians Luluk Purwanto (Indonesian violinist) and Rene van Helsdingen (Dutch pianist) and Dutch visual artist Aart Marcus created a movable multi-purpose inter-disciplinary venue, “The Stage Bus”. Between 1994 and 1997 “ the Stage Bus” appeared in over 350 festivals and events all over Europe and the USA (70 concerts in 45 of the most prestigious Universities of the United States, 2002) and is currently touring Canada (100 concerts in 70 cities).

Mikhail is also known as a photographer. His works have been shown in a number of solo and collective exhibitions and have appeared in several news publications, art publications, magazines, brochures, and books. Mikhail also expresses himself through Landscape and Interior Design incorporating sculptures and other visual art works in the environment.

Mikhail is married to the internationally acclaimed Indonesian concert pianist / musician Ary Sutedja-David.

Together with his wife, Mikhail established the JakArt@ Festivals and Festival a la Carte. Two of his major recent works are “Homage to the Eternal Creativity of The Human Race” (2003) & “All the luggage we carry” (2004). In July 2003 JakArt presented at the National Museum: “Homage to the Eternal Creativity of The Human Race” This unique installation/ exposition was designed as a sketch of atmospheric impressions suggesting the scope and possibilities of Mikhail’s proposal for the creation of a traveling and fully comprehensive chronological Educational Exposition (a traveling museum) of the most important examples of art produced throughout human history around the world, from the cave dweller to the present, in the form of museum replicas in an “atmospheric” context using material from both the Tangible Heritage and Intangible Heritage from around the world. The event, was officiated by the Director General of UNESCO, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura and the Indonesian Minister for Culture and Tourism, Mr. I Gde Ardika.

René van Helsdingen was born in Jakarta, Indonesia on February 25, 1957. His nationality is Dutch. He studied classical music with Mrs.Komter Loeber in Holland from 1962 – 1972. Then he studied Jazz music with Terry Trotter and Lazlo Cser, Los Angeles in 1979. His earliest influences came from Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans. Over the years René has recorded and produced for many different record labels, such as Virgin, Timeless, WEA, Pasific.  His own label is Helsdingen Music and Munich Records, Wageningen, Holland. René's Jazz piano work is articulate and engaging. René writes most of his repetoir.
The Age Melbourne, 23 Dec. 1996 wrote : “A rewarding pianist who can play comfortably in the groove, or more impressionistic patterns, or quiet. Perhaps the most notable quality of his solo´s is brevity. ”

Hermawan is a well respected Indonesian piano technician.
Born on March 24th, 1959, . He learned how to repair and tune piano's at the Yamaha corporation, and worked with them until 1986. He become a piano technician until now. Pak Hermawan has toured with Asah during the previous tour in 2006/ 2007

Sari Sabda Bakti was born on February 25, 1962. Theater is her life. She’s not only good at theater, but also often become the stage manager for many Teater Koma’s performances. She also handle the success of JakArt festival and Teater Koma’s performances. Dede, her nick name, wants to realize her goal; to make Jakarta to become the cultural city of the world. Now, she is the Chief of Finance and Adminstration of Dewan Kesenian Jakarta.

Trisutji Kamal, Indonesia’s most prolific female composer and pianist graduated from the Conservatory Santa Caecilia in Rome, Italy in 1965, where she also specialized in Percussion, History and Style of Folk music and Musical Acoustics. Before her studies in Rome she had the opportunity to study with Henk Badings, a well-known Dutch composer. Trisutji also studied at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. When she returned to Indonesia in 1967, she became an active teacher and performer. She was lecturer at the Sekolah Musik Murni in Medan, Jakarta Institute of Arts.

In 1994, she founded the “Trisutji Kamal Ensemble”, consisting of duo piano, vocals, Indonesian traditional instrument and dance. The ensemble has performed extensively in Indonesia, Europe, Africa and Asian countries.  Trisutji compositions include works for symphony, 2 piano concertos (one of which is accompanied by gamelan bumbung (bamboo gamelan from Bali)combined with harp), viola and cello, chamber orchestra, dance, film, voice, choir, ensembles and various other instruments (mostly piano).

Pudjiwati Insia M. Effendi, pianist, began piano lessons at the age of Five. She continued piano studies with Henk te Strake (Netherlands) and Mr. Zabo (Hungary). She studied at the Conservatoire Musique de Geneva, Switzerland where she won the 2^nd prize in Virtuosity upon Graduation.

She made her debut with the "Orchestra de la Suisse Romande". In 1960 she was invited by the U.S. government to perform and lecture about Javanese dance at universities throughout the U.S.A.  Mrs. Insia’s travels have taken her to Bucharest, Hongkong and to New York where she studied piano with Prof. Magda Niculau, Prof. Halmos, Mrs, Nina Isadora and Madame Adele Marcus.

In Indonesia, Mrs. Insia performed as a soloist with the Jakarta Symphony Orchestra and the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra. She gave a recital in Perth, Australia in 1993. In that same year, together with her friends, she estabilished the International Music Foundation, a non- profit organization for the appreciation and Advancement of music, and a music school, Yayasan Musik Intenational (YMINT) with the purpose to enhance music education in Indonesia. Today she is head of the foundation and director of YMINT.

Yulia Bachar
Graduated from the Pancasila University in 1990 majoring in Economic Management. Her carrier started in the Banking Industry in 1992 ranging from marketing, dealing room (treasury department), middle office (Risk control department), back office (settlement department) as well as banking operations. She holds some certificates related to the financial markets, risk management and back office management from several institutions in Indonesia and overseas such as IPPM – Indonesia, Institute Banking and Finance Singapore, ACI Institute – Forexindo Indonesia, Money for Wealth Financial Services Indonesia and Euromoney Training Singapore.

She has a special interest in risk management and in 2004 she began her involvement in Global Association of Risk Professionals GARP as a member of the Membership Committee. Then in 2005 she dedicated her time as Co Regional Director of the Global Association of Risk Professionals for Indonesia Chapter.

Beside her activities in the Banking Industry and her mingling among risk management professionals,  she also spent her time since 1998 to support the establishment of  JakArt – an International Arts, Cultural and Educational Festival. She is very flexible and is always involved in many different functions like Sometimes she writing press releases, translating documents, handling merchandising, supporting the accounting staff, and as volunteer she believes that JakArt will stimulate the development of Indonesia's civil society.

JakArt secretariat: Jln. Lebak Bulus II / 20 A, Cilandak – Jakarta 12430, INDONESIA
Tel/ fax: + 62-21-75907687, Tel: + 62-21-70830742, email: proseni@indosat.net.id