Without doubt one of the most interesting and distinctive modern composers to come out of Indonesia, I Wayan Sadra was born August 1, 1953 in Denpasar, Bali. He graduated the high school Music Conservatory in 1972 with his specialty being Balinese music in general and the musical style called "gong kebyar" in particular. He then left Bali for Jakarta where he studied painting and taught Balinese gamelan at the Jakarta Fine Arts Institute. During this period he wrote much music for theatre and dance and toured Europe with the prominent choreographer from Central Java, Sardono W.Kusumo. Later he was invited to the National college of the Arts at Surakarta, Central Java where he earned his degree in composition and joined the faculty where he teaches composition, criticism, and Balinese gamelan.
His international honors are many: he was the first composer to be awarded the New Horizons Award for artistic innovation by the International Society for the Arts, Science and Technology in Berkeley, California. He has been composer-in-residence at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire (1991) and guest composer at the Pan Pacific Festival in Wellington, New Zealand (1993).
He was the only composer to be honored with a disc devoted entirely to his works in Lyrichord's distinguished New Music Indonesia series (Volume 3); an earlier disc in the group (Volume 2) "Mana 689" also presented two of his works with compositions by three other Indonesians.
His music is marked most obviously with an effortless blending of disparate, global musical elements and a willingness to use modern instruments mixed freely with traditional ones. Quite often the works are part of mixed-media theatrical/dance performances which can make use of Sadra's love for painting, shadow puppets, and random-activity events such as eggs sizzling on a heated metal panel amplified with microphones.
Snow's Own Dream (1992) marked Sadra's first venture into electronic music -- an exploration into a technical world previously unknown to him. He uses material made by a Balinese suling (bamboo flute) and developed the finished work on the Synclavier. He describes the experience in an article written for the Leonardo Music Journal Vol. 2, No. 1 (1992) entitled "Reflections on a First Experience in Electronic Music."
Sadra's works are available in the west on Lyrichord CDs #7420 and #7421 (New Music Indonesia); a CD from the International Society for Arts, Science and Technology entitled Interactions/New Music for Gamelan; and on a CD which accompanied the first issue of the Leonardo Music Journal in 1991.
Sono Seni Ensemble is a music group putting the basis of learning process in composing new work. Since July 1998 it has started to seek new music perspectives, gaining new sources as the group's commitment. The musical creating approach is based on any music instrument such as combo band instruments. It does not wholly depends on mainstream (pop) image, but exploring music instrument to finds its essence, that is, sound of freeing value. The combo instruments used are mere to make the new music essence towards the spread out people as they are more popular. It means how to create many techniques to produce the new sound. Surely the particularl tradition power will emerge by the various tradition-rooted musicians background.
The group consists of the distinguished ethnic and musical discipline background composers. It has performed in domestic and international music festival in some big cities in Indonesia and abroad such as Sapporo Music Festival, Japan, taking I Wayan Sadra's works (1999); Festival Millenium 2K, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2000); Grant of Arts Network Asia, collaborating with a Japan saxophone player, Takahito Hayashi (September 2000); Tour Show in Jawa, Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi (March 2001), Tour Show on in big cities in Sumatra, playing Agus Bing's works (October 2002); Bali World Music Festival, Bali (2003), some painting and international literature forum events in Indonesia (2004-2005), Bengawan Solo Festival, Surakarta, Indonesia (2006); Collaboration with John Jacobs and Charlote Puch, performed with title 'No End In Sigh' at Surakata Art Centre (April 5-6, 2006), Be co-group of Geizer-Mazolla in music film project 'Magic of the Temple' directed by Garin Nugroho, at Prambanan Ramayana Ballet Open Theatre (August 2006), Bamboo World Music Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia (2007), and frequently performed in international painting and literature forum events. Launched some albums: 'Suita 42 Hari' (2001), collaborating with Takahito Hayashi, a Japan saxophone player; 'Autis 4J' (March 2002); Suita Suit (2004), a live recorded performing album, recorded at Surakarta Art Centre collaborating with an English jazz musician - John Jacobs.
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