Rose Pandanwangi Singing at Her 90th Birthday Celebration at Ciputra Artpreneur

Jakarta, 27 January 2019 - Seriosa and keroncong music, which is an original 'classical' music from Indonesia, is often labelled as "old" music that is generally favored by the elderly and that it is forgotten amongst the millennial generation. The young generation's interest towards Seriosa and keroncong music is very low. To preserve it, Rose Pandanwangi and S. Sudjojono Center, in collaboration with Ciputra Artpreneur, want to educate the young and old on seriosa and keroncong music through Kisah Mawar "90 Tahun Untuk Rose Pandanwangi untuk Seriosa dan Keroncong" that was held on Sunday, 27 January 2019 at the Ciputra Artpreneur Theater.

Rose Pandanwangi is known as a pioneer of seriosa singing and someone who was able to perform both musical genres very well. She was President Soekarno's favorite singer and had a career with more than 60 years in the Indonesia music world. She hopes that through the Kisah Mawar "90 Tahun Untuk Rose Pandanwangi untuk Seriosa dan Keroncong" event, which was presented via a concept of talk show and music performance, she could preserve seriosa and keroncong music in Indonesian society, especially amongst the millennial generation. This event was also held in conjunction with her 90th birthday celebration.

There were several well-known speakers who discussed about the growth of seriosa and keroncong music such as Rose Pandanwangi, Ananda Sukarlan, Intan Soekotjo, Ervina Simarmata, Ninok Leksono, Sharifah Faizah Syed Mohammed (Senior Lecturer at Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia), and Imam D. Kamus (Academis and Founder of Sarekat Krontjong dan Dawai Nusantara).

Besides the talk show, the event was enlivened by a duet between legendary keroncong singer Sundari Soekotjo and her daughter Intan Soekotjo, Ervina Simarmata singing "Nurlela" and poet Sapardi Djoko Damono reading a poem by S. Sudjojono. They were followed by performances by Nikodemus Lukas accompanied on the piano by Ananda Sukarlan, Lukas sang a song from S. Sudjojono's poems, and the highlight of the afternoon being Rose Pandanwangi herself singing "Indonesia Pusaka".

Photo: Mitra Prasetya