View a performance by Endah Laras

Indonesian music stars Endah Laras (vocals) and Danis Sugiyanto (violin) join the American keroncong ensemble Rumput for an evening of traditional Indonesian string band music that traces its roots to the arrival of Portuguese sailors and freed slaves to the archipelago in the sixteenth century. Keroncong’s mellow, jaunty tunes feature vocals, violin, flute, guitar, cello, string bass, and the ukulele-like instruments called cak and cuk. The Rumput band toured Indonesia in 2017 and 2018.

Guest artist Endah Laras has collaborated with many of Indonesia’s leading music, dance, and theater artists, both domestically and abroad. She appeared in Garin Nugroho’s Opera Jawa in France and the Netherlands; with the puppeteer Ki Enthus Susmono in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Korea; and collaborated with dance choreographers from Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In 2016 she performed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This year she appears as part of the “Servant of the World” project in Singapore and Berlin.

Violinist and composer Danis Sugiyanto has created and performed traditional and contemporary Indonesian music for concerts, musical theater, and dance productions throughout Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States, and Australia. He was music arranger for the keroncong wayang project in Singapore in 2016 and performed at the Europalia Arts Festival in Belgium the same year. In 2018 he served as a Fulbright Visiting Artist-Scholar at the University of Richmond. He is a regular collaborator with Rahayu Supanggah, including his productions of King Lear in Singapore, Paris, and Japan; his workshops and performances in Taipei; and his Sound of the Beginning event in New York. His collaborations with theater director Robert Wilson on his I La Galigo have been staged in Melbourne, Jakarta, Italy, Taipei, and New York.

This evening’s concert, part of “Performing Indonesia,” is presented in cooperation with the Embassy of Indonesia.

Photo courtesy of Danis Sugiyanto