Update: 100 Friends Campaign

Greetings Friends!

As many of you know, the departure date of our 2009 UNICEF Peace tour is fast approaching! As you probably would expect, there is so much work to do. Fortunately, things have been rolling right along. We are close to finalizing all of our tour dates and accommodations, and most of our promotional and concert materials have been digitally transmitted to Indonesia!

I bet you are sitting there, thinking, "Well they are just about on their way; Nothing more for me to do." Well, I have news for you. There is plenty for you to still do!

1. If you are on Facebook, head over to the Friends of the Swara Sonora Trio page and become a fan. (This is free!)

2. If you are interested in helping us help the youth of Indonesia, and can put off seeing the new Pixar film this week, visit our 100 Friends page, and make a $10 (or more) donation. Who needs your $10 more? (This is not free, but will bring you good luck.)

3. If you want to hear some great music (and live in Arizona or have the means to get here), come see us at one of our upcoming concerts. The Dates are May 9th and July 17th. Mark your calendars, details are coming!!!!

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.

We are on our way for UNICEF Peace Tour!!

Hello friends:

We, Swara Sonora Trio, met today and finalized lots of our plans to go to Indonesia this summer. We've got some dates prepared, and our first major concert will be in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday night, August 6th, 2009.

Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia. It is a big, busy, sprawling metropolitan and has lots of exciting musical and cultural activities (of course, businesses is the main activity). It actually has several boroughs / areas, just like New York City.

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

Work and Play

The Swara Sonora Trio doesn't just make music together, we're pretty good at hanging out together, too. In fact, most of our rehearsals and meetings turn into dinner parties. Last night the guys came over my place for tour planning and a Mexican feast. We decided to have more regular meetings, both so that we don't have hours of talking to do each time, and so that we can share more meals together. This seems to bode well for spending three weeks on the road together in Indonesia next summer...

Recording Session

Last week Aryo, Nathan, and I (with the page-turning help of our friend Brian) went into the recording studio at the U of A to make a professional recording of "Love and Variations."

In two hours we had all 8 songs in the can. Once we've selected the best tracks, we'll send the complete recording of "Love and Variations" to Bob Conrad of WCLV Radio in Cleveland, who will play our recording on WCLV.

We also made a video of the session, to use in promotional materials for our tour to Indonesia. Our Indonesian manager, Mutia Dharma, requested a video of something well-known to help sell us to presenters and donors in Indonesia, so we made a quick recording of one of our favorite operatic duets, "Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni.

Look for these audio and video clips to be posted soon on our website, www.swarasonora.com

Summer Happenings

Greetings!
After our successful premiere, we are all off on our own for a busy summer! Unfortunately there won't be any performances for the trio this summer, but we are all doing great individual things. Even though we aren't performing together as a group, we are in working hard at arranging performances and and make arrangements for our trip to Indonesia.

In addition to trip plans, we are planning a recording that we can use for promotion and radio broadcast. Check back here for more info on where to here excerpts of the recording or broadcasts!

In other news, I am applying for a grant with the Arizona Commission on the Arts. If the granted, we will be arranging Indonesian folk songs for the trio that we can use for our tour and for concerts here in Tucson.

Don't forget to check back here for more info.

Nathan