• recordings
  • performing
    • Fine Blue Thread Trio
    • The Echoes Project 2017/2018
    • Opal Vapour
  • teaching
  • Embodied rhythm workshops
  • contact
RIA SOEMARDJO
  • recordings
  • performing
    • Fine Blue Thread Trio
    • The Echoes Project 2017/2018
    • Opal Vapour
  • teaching
  • Embodied rhythm workshops
  • contact
RIA SOEMARDJO
 Ria Soemardjo is a Melbourne based musician with a passion for collaborating with artists across diverse range of genres and artforms. Her  distinct, haunting vocal style reflects her Australian/Indonesian cultural heritage and she draws on her fascination for Indonesian musical traditions in her song writing and collaborative projects. 

 PROJECTS/EVENTS

NGAYOMI/ SHELTER 

Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal & Ria Soemardjo
NSW residency and performances -  April 2024

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Read More > >
Ngayomi/Shelter is a shared journey between audience and two performers, a contemplation on water, displacement and hope. Encounter delicate sculptural objects, powerful movement and a live soundscape in this intimate experience. Dance and live music are interwoven by dancer/choreographer Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and musician Ria Soemardjo, who draw on their shared Javanese cultural heritage in this collaborative work. Hosted by two wise Jamu aunties, audiences are gently and playfully guided into an intimate encounter with sculptural objects, Jade Dewi’s visceral and sensual movement, and Ria’s bespoke musical instruments and voice creating a mesmerising soundscape. Set in a dystopian future, in a newly regenerating landscape, Ngayomi/Shelter evokes a ceremony for the losses and horror of the past, grounded in hope for the future.

SURAT-SURATNYA 
DEC 6th-17th - La Mama Theatre
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info/bookings

​A collaboration between Stage of Wawan Sofwan, Sandra Fiona Long and Ria Soemardjo. 
Surat-Suratnya takes over La Mama HQ’s theatre and rehearsal hub with two performances inspired by these letters:
Our Last Dinner Was Sayur Lodeh:  A young mother prepares the final meal for her family in Jakarta before they flee to the safety of Australia. A monologue adapted by Wawan Sofwan and performed by Ellen Marning.
​Between the Letters: An intimate installation performance, created and performed by Ibu Helen’s daughter, singer and artist Ria Soemardjo, navigating the intergenerational impact of the loss of homeland experienced by her father as a political exile living in Victoria.
NEW ALBUM - available on BANDCAMP >>
WHAT MAKES ME HUMAN. This long awaited recording expands on the trio's signature approach of beautifully crafted and textured contemporary world music compositions 

UPCOMING  EVENTS
RECENT PERFORMANCES
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ALBUM LAUNCH - AUGUST 2023
Tuesday 12 September 2023 6pm
Melbourne Recital Centre, Primrose Potter Salon
​SOLD OUT
​Fine Blue Thread play finely crafted, fresh and intriguing compositions that are grounded in the traditions of Indian, Javanese and Western music

'What If Music…'.  Music Market, Collingwood Yards. June 10th 2023
​
collaboration with Firetail and Balinese Gamelan, presented and supported by the Boite
'On one tune, Ria Soemardjo’s gloriously melismatic vocals slid over a gracefully strummed Javanese zither; on another, the singer launched into a brisk passage of konnakol (South Indian vocal percussion) with Keshav Yoganathan.....'

Review by Jessica Nicholas, The Age
 ★★★★
June 10 2023
​r
ead review >>
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​of frogs - live performance work
Premiere - September 2022 Darebin Speakeasy - Fuse Festival.  
AUDIENCE REVIEWS
“A stunning show – immersive, informed, humourous, intricate, and exceptional.“
“Wish I could take the show home to listen to again and again.“
“I didn’t want it to end.“ 
‘Of Frogs’ is a new performance work, inspired by frogs and our waterways, a performance ritual of voice, percussion & shadow play interacting with water. 
A mesmerising performance springing from percussion, voice and shadow play, invoking the life cycle of frogs, forgotten waterways and lost springs
​
Sandra Fiona Long & Ria Soemardjo with Jeremy Dullard & Ron Reeves
​Presented by Darebin Arts Speakeasy and KP Productions

Sanctuary -  Mapping Melbourne Festival  2021
 2021. Short video work - devised by Ria Soemardjo, multi-layered sound compositions featuring gamelan instruments, voice and Ron Reeves on khene (Thai reed instrument) and percussion,  woven with Jon’s text and movement. Cinematography by Max Milne. 
​'As a child, growing up in a remote Thai village, actress Jon (Pongjit Saphakhun) recalls a magical time, spending hours playing under a huge fragrant moon fruit tree. Ceremonies in her village were often chaotic, joyful social events, reflecting an intimate, direct relationship with the natural world – and a deep respect for trees. Now in Melbourne, Jon listens for this connection in the trees she encounters on her walks.'

murmuring walk    guided audio walk soundtrack
Created in collaboration with  Charlotte Roberts and Sandra Fiona Long. Murmuring Walk is an audio-guided walk reflecting the environment, birdlife and natural rhythms of Sanatorium lake, Mount Macedon
This beautiful  guided walk can be experienced at any time > >

swallow walk    guided audio walk soundtrack
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Created in iso, Swallow Walk is an audio-guided experience of Edwardes Lake in Reservoir, inspired by the lake’s surrounding environment and its migratory birds including the Welcome Swallows that flit over the lake, especially at springtime. Created in collaboration with writer  Sandra Fiona Long, launched in November 2020, culminating in a beautiful live event incorporating  the recorded audio and the sound of  gongs and other gamelan instruments resonating across the lake. 
 Commissioned and funded by Darebin Arts for HYPERLOCAL – a new series of immersive art works that invites audiences to see Darebin differently. Presented by FUSE Darebin.         
swallow walk info and free audio download

'Cosmic spectacle and apocalyptic majesty in the land of the dead'​
Sydney Morning Herald
Ria  performed in Asiatopa Festival February 2020 -  Hades Fading/Hades Memudar.  Indonesia/Australia collaboration with Mainteater company, This exciting bilingual play was developed and premiered in Bandung  in 2019.
​ Ria worked with director /writer Sandra Long, guzheng player Sisca Harp, and the dynamic Mainteater actors, including Bandung poet Godi Suwarna to create live music & vocal soundscapes for this production.

 rhythm

resonance

Connecting with our innate sense of rhythm....
I offer workshops in  the TaKeTiNa Rhythm process, as developed by world renouned percussionist and rhythm educator - Reinhardt Flatischler.
upcoming workshops
Voice/Intention/Breath/Expression...
Private sessions for people seeking to explore their vocal potential. 
​I draw on my intensive training as a teacher of the Alexander Technique - used world wide as an approach to refining our kinaesthetic intelligence as we move/sound/ think.
enquiries

Performing  with Melbourne Community Gamelan and their visiting teacher - the multi-talented  Danis Sugiyanto. Wayang Kulit (shadow puppet theatre) is one of my favourite events - incorporating live gamelan, beautiful puppets, improvised comedy, epic stories. Here is one of the  highlights for me, Danis is accompanying me singing one  a very popular solo Javanese song, on violin, in his own unique style...

recent/current projects

The Echoes Project 2019 - Seafarer's Welcome
Hades Fading - Indonesia
Indigenous celebration tour - 2018 Bali/Kalimantan
Fine Blue Thread - contemporary world music
Surat-surat - Rani Pramesti and Ron Reeves.
Chinese Whispers - sound design/composition - a digital, bilingual graphic novel
The Echoes Project : Mapping Melbourne Festival December 2017
Enfold - collaboration with Opal Vapour Artists
All Ria’s work integrates, in quite an exquisite way, an aesthetic coming directly from an Asian tradition (with which she has cultural links) and her Australian context. This kind of work enriches the culturally diverse landscape in Australia  and opens new possibilities. It is breathtakingly beautiful, and deserves to be fostered in order to continue and grow....Ria is an artist of great skill and humility, who is quite unique in her ideas, talents and dedication to her work.  (Bagryana Popov 2002)

past projects

contemporary ceremony
Opal Vapour
'Moths are calling' - collaboration with dance artist Janette Hoe
Sedih|Sunno - Rani P Collaborations
Solo Performance/installation - Nocturne Festival, Dandenong
Tower Suites - Ros Warby and Helen Mountfort. Green room award 2014


Hades Fading/Hades Memudar - ​KP Productions
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Contact

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