(b Denpasar, Bali, 27 Jan 1949). Indonesian composer and pianist. After taking piano lessons and composing with gamelan-influenced pentatonic scales, he enrolled at the Yogyakarta Music Academy in 1966; he left a year later for West Germany, where he studied composition and the piano at the Musikhochschule in Münster and the Folkwanghochschule in Essen. In the late 1960s Suprana was at the forefront of contemporary music performance on Indonesian TV. Completing his studies in 1972, he taught the piano at several schools in Germany. On his return to Indonesia in 1976 he taught, gave concerts and set up musical foundations, including the Semarang Music Forum. Suprana frequently used the idioms of post-serialism in his early works, for example in Paramnesia for solo piano (1970). His intensive study of gamelan music with Ki Nartosabdho in the mid-1980s prompted him to return to his earlier use of pentatonic scales; his music also moved closed to tonality. Suprana's works, many of which are written for piano and small ensemble, have been performed in Europe, America, New Zealand and in Asian countries. His non-musical achievements in social science, herbal medicine and humour reveal the characteristic way in which Indonesian society resists tight compartmentalization.
FRANKI RADEN