Tickets Purchased!

Well, Swara Sonora is really going to Indonesia now. We still have some funds to raise for our Peace Tour benefiting UNICEF, but our new fundraising campaigns are going well, we have enough money in our Fractured Atlas account to cover plane tickets, and it seemed like time to take the plunge and buy them.

On Monday we met at Bentley's coffee house to peruse travel sites and search for the best price and itinerary for our flights to Indonesia. We find that we're very productive in coffee shops - in fact I've joked that we should give honorary tour sponsorships to the various independent local business (Ike's, Beyond Bread, and Bentley's) where we frequently meet.

After two hours of searching, we purchased our tickets from LAX to Jakarta on Cathay Pacific airlines. We'll be gone July 28-August 17. Now it seems real, and we're getting incredibly excited. Stay tuned to the blog for more details on what we'll be doing in Java and Bali from July 28 to August 17!

Kathryn and Aryo show off the flight confirmation screen from Cathay

Possible programs for UNICEF PEACE TOUR 2009

We are going to perform at the Erasmus Huis Concert Hall (The Dutch Cultural Center
at the center of town, in Jakarta, near all of the Embassies and International expats).
Yayasan Musik Internasional (International Music Foundation of Jakarta) is our
generous host for the concert event. We will also perform master classes for this
organization, and possibly doing some outreach events.

This concert / tour will be a "UNICEF Peace Tour 2009": meaning, we will give
the proceeds directly towards UNICEF Indonesia, to foster relationship and friendship
between different countries and culture, and to help each other around the world.

For the program..... hmmm... FOR SURE, we will finally bring Ananda Sukarlan's
"Love and Variations" for soprano, baritone, and piano (written for us, Swara Sonora
trio a year ago). We were brainstorming for music and thematic possibilities, especially
for the soprano-baritone-piano combination.

We'll have a suite by Virgil Thompson (American composer), Joaquin Rodrigo (Spanish), some
Broadway Musicals / tunes of Bernstein, Rogers-Hammerstein, etc. and of course
glorious art songs of Schubert, Purcell, etc. etc.

We have not found a piece by a French composer. Hopefully some Poulenc, maybe?
Kathryn and Nathan mentioned in our meeting today that there might be some interesting
pieces by Poulenc for the soprano-baritone-piano combination.

We're still thinking about all the possibilities, so keep in tune with our progress!!
Additionally, there might be a surprise in terms of concert paraphrase... on some
"local" melodies.

What's New...

A lot!!! Well, first of all, I'm in the process of teaching Aryo how to use the blogger account. This should increase the amount of posts, and Aryo is really excited to contribute. Second, we are on the verge of launching an exciting campaign, so keep a watch out for news. Everyone will be receiving an e-mail or a Facebook invitation (if you don't think we have your e-mail, then leave us a comment here!) Finally, we are officially making Thursday blog day, so be sure to check back each week.

Click here for information about Indonesia