Indonesian Musician Leaves Fans Wanting More

From the Zimbabwe Herald
3rd May 2012

Jazz lovers had a rare treatment of world class performance on Tuesday by renowned Indonesian musician and composer Peni Candra Rini who is in the country for this year’s edition of the Harare International Festival of Arts Rini performed two melodies and left the crowd asking for more.

One of the songs that drew the attention of many people was the hit “Inner Rhythm of Archipelago of Indonesia” on her latest album.

The song was well arranged with pentatonic tunings and was made sweeter with the use of Indonesian traditional instruments known as gamelan and acoustic guitar.

Before performing in Harare, Rini also had another splendid show on Monday evening in Domboshava for a pre-Hifa party.

A university graduate from the Indonesian Arts Institute, Rini has been in the music industry for the past 15 years.

Apart from being a musician, Rini is also a university lecturer at the Indonesian Institute of Arts.

In an interview, Rini said she was happy to be in Zimbabwe and was keen to perform at future editions of Hifa.

“I want to come back to Zimbabwe. This is a very great and famous festival. This is my third time performing at Hifa,” she said.

Indonesian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Eddy Poerwana and other music enthusiasts attended the show.

Rini is one of the few female contemporary music composers and vocalists in Indonesia who performs sindhen, a female soloist accompanied by a gamelan orchestra.

In 2008, she was established as a contemporary composer in a concert entitled “Bramara”, which concluded her post-graduate programme at the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI), Surakarta, Central Java, where she is currently a lecturer.

She is strongly committed to preserving the musical traditions of Indonesia has collaborated with great artistes from within and outside Indonesia such as Rahayu Supanggah, (the late) I Wayan Sadra, Dwiki Darmawan, Al Suwardi, Garin Nugroho, Robert Wilson (New York), Albert Chimedza (Zimbabwe).

Rini has made a musical composition for Gamelan Pacifica at Cornish College of the Arts Seattle (2011) and has joined the performance with group of gamelan Garasi Seni Benawa at Surakarta, Kusuma Laras New York (2011) and Venerable Shower of beauty Gamelan at Portland (2011), among others.