JAKARTA – In order to commemorate World Music Therapy Day, UPH’s Music Therapy Specialization held a Sensory-Friendly Concert entitled “Nilam si Pelaut”, or Nilam the Sailor, and a music therapy seminar on 2 March 2019 and was held at Pacific Place Mall. Through this concert, UPH’s Conservatory of Music (CoM), which opened the program for specialization in musical therapy, also wanted to share their music with people with special needs and to invite them to participate in it.

Monica Subiantoro, the Head of Music Therapy Specialization CoM UPH, said, “Other than introducing musical therapy to the people, our goal is to give a chance to children with special needs, who often find it difficult in getting access to a concert. We feel that they deserve the music, not to simply listen, but to be a part of the concert.”

Tia Iskandar, a professor in CoM UPH, also voiced Subiantoro’s opinion, “In my opinion, everyone has a right to music and to enjoy a live concert. The problem with many conventional concerts is that it is not suited to current situations, such as the needs of people with special needs. Eighty-percent of parents of special needs children don’t want to bring their children to a classical concert, even though everyone should be able to naturally enjoy music with movements. Because of that, we try to facilitate a concert for all the people so that they can enjoy the music naturally. In my opinion, music is part of everyone’s life.”

There were about 268 attendees at the concert. The concert was packed with a musical drama entitled “Nilam Kandung”, which was a drama based on the story of “Malin Kundang”. The title concert, “Nilam si Pelaut”, was also a reconstructed story made by Dr. Clara Evi Citraningtyas, a professor of the Liberal Arts Faculty and a writer.

Dr. Citraningtyas explained, “In the original, Malin was cursed; In our story, Nilam is forgiven. The base fact is that we don’t want to propagate this culture of ‘an eye for an eye’. Through my research, I found that most of our folk stories carry this culture, and I found that this has a bad impact on the children.”

Sensory-Friendly Concert itself was a research project of Tia Iskandar. Previously, a similar concert was held in 2017. Iskandar was grateful because the concert went smoothly and successfully touched the hearts of the audience through the music and the storytelling.

After the concert ended, there was a seminar about musical therapy with esteemed speakers such as Jessica Hariwijaya and Irene Felicia Simajuntak, accompanied by Karen Wacks and Laura Sekarputri from Berklee College of Music in America. The seminar was moderated by Subiantoro.

CoM UPH hopes that through the concert and seminar, there will be a positive impact on the audience and the people of Indonesia regarding musical therapy.

Subiantoro closed, “I hope that all attending families enjoyed the show. I am touched by the family responses and am thankful for this event. I am thankful because it showed how precious this opportunity is for them.” In developing musical therapy in Indonesia, Subiantoro delivered that there should be more research done on the matter so that the musical therapy discipline will be accepted. The parents’ cooperation is also important because we couldn’t have done this without the parents’ open-mindedness and acceptance.”