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Sapto Raharjo and the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival

By Cynthia Webb

Inspiration, motivation and hard work create worthwhile results. A man who continues to demonstrate what can be achieved by one who has these valuable traits, is Sapto Raharjo of Yogyakarta. Sapto’s gift to the musicians and music lovers is the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival.

The first Festival took place in 1995 and has continued to be staged every year except 1998, a year of political upheaval. It was originally part of the Yogyakarta Arts Festival which is an initiative of the Yogya government. However, in 1999 the Gamelan Festival became an independent entity, because there was not enough funding available.

Working independently enabled Sapto to develop his many creative ideas for finding support and sponsorship, and has proved to be very successful. He has established a group called Friends of the YGF, to assist in collecting funding and this group of supporters includes musician groups in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and he also receives help from the Indonesian Marketing Association.

The music festival is timetabled to follow the Arts Festival and it usually gets underway around the second week in July. It features free evening concerts, seminars, discussions, exhibitions, a bazaar, mobile music played in the streets travelling on trucks, and broadcasting gamelan music on Yogya’s most popular radio station, GERONIMO 105.8FM. There is also the Gaung Gamelan, or gamelan echo in which groups of gamelan players make music in their own locations but at the same times, 9 a.m., 4 p.m. and 7.30p.m. so that the sounds of the gamelan ring out all over the city

Sapto is now Human Resources Manager at GERONIMO where he has been employed since 1988, when he began as a guest broadcaster. GERONIMO’S participation and support for the Gamelan Festival is huge, contributing funding, publicity and on-air time for broadcasting gamelan music. GERONIMO is a broadcaster which always keeps its finger on the pulse of what it’s listeners want to hear and sometimes does quite adventurous things, which have resulted in it being by far the most popular radio station in Yogya, especially with the huge student community.

For the years 200l and 2002, Sapto tried a new concept, bringing the Gamelan to the kampung.
He wanted to reach out to those who did not feel comfortable to attend a concert at a formal location in a university. So the festival was held in Jln. Gayam, in front of the offices of GERONIMO FM. With the permission of the people, the area was renamed Kawasan Budaya Gayam. The street was closed to traffic at both ends. A large stage was erected with powerful lighting and sound systems installed. Three big screens were available in the area so that people could view the performances, even if they were not able to be in front of the stage. An audience comprised of all levels of society and including overseas tourists, enjoyed this unique musical experience together.

It is ironic that most people thought Sapto changed his location to save money, when in actual fact it was more expensive to stage the festival in the street, than in the performance hall, Purna Budaya at UGM. Therefore, he has not been able continue with this. However the experiment had a very beneficial effect on the Gayam community, planting the seed of creative inspiration. Sapto says that there has since been a lot of cultural activity happening in the area, all motivated by the local people.

Sapto has been a musician and music lover since he was a child. His motivation is his fervent love of the gamelan arts. He can play all of the instruments of the gamelan in traditional or contemporary context, except suling and rebab. However his favourite is kendang with which he says he can best express his soul. His joy is plainly visible when he plays kendang, his long salt and pepper hair flying, inspired by the rhythms being created and shared with his musician friends. He really enjoys the collaboration and especially loves working with musicians from other countries.

For Sapto, music is not only his personal means of communication, but it is a medium to reach out to others, and he has ambitious plans for the future development of the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival. Already the festival has enjoyed the participation of musicians from USA, New Zealand, France and Australia, as well as groups from other parts of Indonesia. The music heard is not only traditional, but often fusion music of a very imaginative nature. Here, diverse cultures meet and traditional and contemporary music are side by side.

This year for the 8th Festival, which was held between 10th and 16th July, there was a new theme Gamelan goes to Campus. Two evening concerts were held at Purna Budaya, at Universitas Gadja Mahda (UGM) and three concerts were at Sekolah Menengah Karawitan Indonesia (SMKI), Bugisan. Sapto has established a relationship with educational staff and in the near future his plan is to reach out into universities all over Indonesia and the world where the gamelan arts are studied and practised.

Gamelan is now being played in twenty-seven countries in the world. Later in the year, with recognition and recommendation from Universitas Gadja Mahda, he will start sending out information about the Gamelan Festival, to his list of overseas universities where gamelan music is played, inviting them Yogya, to participate in future festivals. The groups in other countries need to find their own funding for their visit to Yogya, and this can be difficult as it is during high season price period for airfares and a group has quite a large number of members. Sapto provides them with a letter of recommendation to assist them seeking sponsorship in their own local communities.

Sapto visualises the future of the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival as being not only the performances and broadcasting activities, but also as a cultural exchange of friendship and musical inspiration. As Director of the festival, he is always working towards building bridges between gamelan lovers from all over the world, and developing greater appreciation for Indonesia’s traditional musical form. According to Mas Sapto, Gamelan is a spirit, not an object. The instruments are just the medium.
Further information can be found online at www.gayam16.net/YGF

Cynthia is a cultural networker for the Australia Indonesia Arts Alliance, www.aiaa.org.au and can be reached at: lorokidul3@yahoo.com