(b Jakarta, 1952). Indonesian composer, conductor and pianist. After early piano lessons he entered the YPM music school at the age of nine, then studied composition and the piano with Sutarno Sutikno and Frans Haryadi at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts. In 1972 and 1974 Djamin won the Electone Festival championship. He lived in the USA between 1974 and 1988, initially studying composition and the piano at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and also studying conducting. In 1988 he obtained the doctorate in piano performance from the Catholic University of America. His American awards include the Otto Ortman Award for composition (1975, 1976) and the Peabody Concerto Competition for piano performance. In Indonesia Djamin has been active as a composer, conductor and pianist. He established the highly regarded Nusantara Chamber Orchestra in 1988; in 1994 he became composer-in-residence and supervisor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Malaysia.
Djamin's compositions frequently use the pentatonic scales of gamelan music as a foundation from which to develop the melody, while their harmonic development is greatly influenced by jazz. Several of his orchestral works use traditional gamelan instruments in the orchestra, for example Nyi Ronggeng, which won first prize at the International Music Festival in Sydney. Djamin is one of the few Indonesian musicians who has simultaneously made a reputation in the fields of composition, conducting and piano performance.
FRANKI RADEN