Suka Hardjana

Suka Hardjana

was born in 1940 in Yoygakarta and, like Slamet A. Sjukur, belongs to the pioneering generation that studied at the first art academy for western music SMIND in Yogyakarta. His main instrument was the clarinet. Thanks to a stipend from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) in 1964, he was afforded the opportunity to pursue his clarinet studies at the Musikhochschule in Detmold with Jost Michels, graduating in 1968. Afterwards, he played in an orchestra in Bremen and taught at the conservatory there. A tour of Asia with the orchestra brought him back to Indonesia in 1969, and at the urging of numerous friends he returned in 1971 and proceeded to put together a chamber orchestra there. He also founded the “Pekan Komponis Muda” (Young Composers Week), which was the first and, for a long time, the only forum in Indonesia for contemporary music. Since 1986, for various reasons, some of them being medical, Suka Hardjana has stepped back from his place on the frontlines of the music scene, but has continued to remain active as a sharp-tongued music critic and essayist. He now teaches composition at the STSI Surakarta art academy.

“Good contemporary music in Indonesia always grows up out of tradition. In the evenings, they play traditional wayang shadow theatre, in the morning new music. That’s how it is here—most likely a bit different from how it is in the West.” Suka Hardjana