Exclusive Short Interview with Dwiki Dharmawan
What a phenomenal mega project. That was my first impression when I heard the news about this project that gathered some of the best talents in the world to participate in preserving our cultural heritage, more specifically the ethnic music. Indonesia is a very big country that has thousands of different multi-colored cultures. Dwiki Dharmawan, the brain behind this project, has been known to have a big concern about how the ethnic music can survive the test of time. It’s never an easy task, since the music trend is not going at the same direction, but somebody has got to do it.
What Dwiki did is this: using the same technology we all use today called internet, he collected the parts sent by the overseas musicians from their own places. He combined it with our own local talents, and as the result we have an amazing creation of world music at its best. World Peace Orchestra, that’s the name, The Soul of Indonesia consists more than 100 enthusiastic musicians in it. The message is clear: how beautiful the world would be if everybody join hands, living in harmony, peacefully, just like what they all show with this collaboration. Masterpiece compositions are all over this giant size orchestra. Dwiki shows his creativity at max. We believe Dwiki Dharmawan’s World Peace Orchestra will grab the world’s attention for its stunning concept.
We should be thankful for having a very creative, professional and committed man like Dwiki. Of course he’s no stranger to us. He’s been contributing a lot for our music scene. He started his professional career by joining Krakatau in 1985. Later he showed big passion in exploring the ethnic musics. Many achievements have been added in his gallery and the good news is, he’s still hungry to give more. Simply put, the music world of Indonesia would never be the same without him. His creativity seems endless. We can’t help but wonder, what is he up to right now, especially with the World Peace Orchestra.
Right after the stunning concert of World Peace Orchestra at Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta, in which he presented Krisdayanti (KD) as a guest star along with many other surprising lineups, our reporter got a chance to ask him some important questions. It was a short but very valuable interview. Now let’s dig it.
Photo by Sigit Kurniawan, courtesy of jazzuality.com
What’s the concept of World Peace Orchestra tonight?
I’m still consistent with cross-cultural music, cross-nations and cross-generations. I take them all as valuable sources to have a trip over the world’s existing cultures through orchestra.
How exactly you describe the music style of World Peace Orchestra?
I describe it as symphonic orchestra or symphonic jazz. In Keyboard magazine July edition, our music is categorized as multi-cultural jazz music. It’s them in USA that gave us that label (laugh). Let me explain clearer. If in Krakatau band I play jazz in mainstream or fusion style, that’s the kind of jazz that popular in the western world. But with World Peace Orchestra, I want to introduce jazz which is inspired from the wonderful various cultures found in Indonesia and the world in general. Through this international network finally I could collaborate with many international musicians.
What’s the theme for tonight’s concert? Is there any plan to make another concert in the near future?
The tonight’s theme is World Peace Orchestra Comodo Tour, because with this concert I want to remind all music lovers to support Comodo Island to be one of the new world’s seven wonders. As for the concert plan, I’m ready at any time. Right now I’m working on making the arrangement of “Rambadia” (a famous folk song from Tapanuli, North Sumatra).
Does World Peace Orchestra have a smaller combo group? Why the combo formation tonight was different than the previous concert at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta last June?
Well yes, we have combo group, but we still name it as World Peace Orchestra. There were some musicians missing in the lineup for tonight, but that’s only because they were not available to perform at this moment.
Interviewed by : Bawien Lilaning Panggalih
Editor: Riandy Kurniawan
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