The LA and Santa Cruz Subud Centers had the pleasure of hosting music recitals featuring Ary Sutedja-David in March 2023. More than 40 people attended the concert in LA on 3/12/23, and more than 30 in Santa Cruz on 3/16/23.
Haryanti Jones provided videos and photos of the LA concert, available HERE.
Lianne Card wrote a vibrant story about this amazing musical tour (read below).
A Musical Celebration, by Lianne Card
On March 16th, the Santa Cruz Center had’ the unexpected grace of a classical concert at our center. Since last summer, we’ve enjoyed our visiting sister from Indonesia, Elmira David, who was serving an internship as a music therapist at a local hospice. As Elmira was completing her term, Ary Sudetja-David, her mother, decided to visit California.
A distinguished concert pianist, Ary is the widow of impresario Mikhail David. Together, they organized the JakArt festival held June, 2001 in Jakarta, in conjunction with the centenary of Bapak’s birth. This year, Ary felt that she wanted to express her gratitude for remission from breast cancer by offering a mini-concert tour in California, taking advantage of Elmira’s ability to be her guide and driver. She invited her old friend Soun Youn (Sonia) Kim, a Korean oboist, to come along. As icing on the cake, both were celebrating birthdays in March.
Ary and Sonia performed first at the Subud Wilshire Café in LA, then at the Sunshine Villa Community in downtown Santa Cruz, and then offered the grand finale at the Subud Santa Cruz Hall. With Elmira as the intrepid driver, the trio threaded their way between the storms from LA along the coast with an overnight stop in Santa Barbara. Before the evening concert, they toured downtown Capitola which was still recovering from its flooding in January. Members of the group and the musicians had lunch overlooking the Pacific.
Before her mother arrived, Elmira had arranged for the tuning of our piano on stage at the hall, and invited the hospice community and people who were her host family in Watsonville, plus the Subud group, to attend the upcoming performance. Our familiar hall was transformed into an elegant concert space with refreshments in the foyer and large applique musical symbols flanking either side of the stage. Ari wanted to make it clear this was not to be a fundraiser. She wanted this performance to be a gift of music freely given to friends, brothers, and sisters.
Both Ary and Sonia studied internationally to perfect their musical credentials. Ary obtained a Masters in Music degree at the Towson University in Baltimore and then went on to post-graduate studies on a scholarship in St. Petersburg. Sonia graduated from the College of Music at Seoul University and then studied also on a scholarship at the Royal College of Music in the U.K.
Ary began with a dramatic rendition of “Granada”, bringing our piano back to life and the audience into the moment. She transported us with etudes by Chopin and Liszt. Then Sonia, who has been the principal oboist for multiple orchestras in Asia, surprised us with lively dances such as a polonaise and a gavotte, sometimes solo and sometimes in a duet with Ary. Together, they expressed a wide range of emotions in a romantic repertoire.
Here was SICA in action as the vibrant music resounded through the old school house and the “angels of music” swept away the last vestiges of the pandemic as well as several months of concern over the atmospheric rivers.
The concert ended with a vocal performance by Anya Ismail, who leads the music therapy program at Hospice of Santa Cruz County where Elmira worked. Anya sang two American classics as well as a Kurt Weill song with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
The three performers were radiant with the energy of the evening and we in the audience were uplifted by their enthusiasm and open-hearted expression. Sometimes, life brings us surprises. We left feeling touched by this memorable evening and grateful for traveling musicians who bestowed their gift so freely. Thank you Elmira, Ary, Sonia and Anya!
