Nusantara Orchestra

I woke up one morning still hearing beautiful music in my ears. I still heard the soft sound of the piano playing. I still saw the Balinese dancer with all that passion and the conductors that were full of power. I remembered watching a fantastic orchestra called the Nusantara Orchestra, one of the best and most famous orchestras in Indonesia. The Nusantara Orchestra was established in 1988 and the current leader is Mrs. Herawati Diah. On October 4th they performed at Tokyo concert hall, this was their first concert in Tokyo, as part of the Asia’s orchestra week. It was conducted by Hikotaro Yazaki and Edward Van Ness, they were very good conductors. These conductors were full of enthusiasm and lead the whole ensemble with power and passion. In addition there were solo performances by Ananda Sukarian, the talented pianist, and Ida Ayu Wayan Prihandari, the very skilled Balinese dancer. Ananda Sukarian has studied music in Europe and Ida Ayu Wayan is just a teenager with skills like a grown woman who has been dancing all her life. In the concert they preformed Nyi Ronggeng, Jangeran, Beethoven’s 7th symphony, and more.
The pieces were played beautifully. In the piece called Jangeran, they used Indonesia’s traditional instrument called the gamelan, which fit very well with the rest of the orchestra. The gamelan is Indonesia’s traditional instrument, in which every different region has a different type of gamelan. Gamelan are made of sets of tuned bronze gongs, gong-chimes, metallophones, drums, one or more flute, bowed and plucked string instruments, and sometimes singers. In some regions to make gamelan, bronze is sometimes replaced by iron, wood, or bamboo. In the middle of this piece the gamelan players would sing achapelo and the Balinese dancer that performed with them would dance with the beat. The dancer was very indeed talented. Every strong beat that came along her eyes would open wide and her eyes would look from left to right really quickly.
One piece was played with only with the piano. It was an Indonesian folk song that was changed to classical. The pianist was the very talented Ananda Sukarian. You could hear each note he played. Clearly and precisely .It was extraordinary! The notes from the original song were still heard even though the format of the song has changed.
As the night went by, Beethoven’s 7th symphony was played. The sound was perfect and soft, and felt as if you were in a magical place where everything was perfect. The woodwinds had a solo which was fantastic. I had never heard a piece played as well as they played it. The beat was in time. The violin was very nice and the whole orchestra played beautifully.
I think that the Nusantara symphony Orchestra is one of the best in the world. I would say that every one would love this orchestra, because their songs are really well played, and with a lot of passion. If you get a chance to hear them, don’t pass it up.