Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine February 2019 | Page 70

Explore | Interview
INTERVIEW
68
Indonesian violinist Clarissa
Tamara is not yet 20 years old,
but she has already achieved
what other musicians can only
dream of: breaking the world
record for the fastest violinist
and winning at the Anugerah
Musik Indonesia (AMI) – her
country’s most prestigious
music awards.
Music runs in Clarissa’s blood. Her father,
Ferdinand Marsa, is an Indonesian
pianist, composer and arranger, and
Clarissa fell in love with the violin when
she was just two years old.
But it wasn’t until she was three and
a half that she could really start to learn
to play. “I asked my parents for a violin
lesson, but I couldn’t get one until I was
three and a half because, at that time,
it was hard to find a teacher who could
teach a child below seven years old,”
Clarissa recalls.
After learning violin for more than four
years, she released her first album in 2008.
It was simply called 8 in a nod to her age,
marking her as an accomplished musician
with a talent to match many adults,
demonstrated across 11 songs, including
a bonus track. In the same year, Clarissa
released a second album, 9 Gifts of
Christmas, including festive classics such as
‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and
‘Jingle Bells’.
The following year Clarissa blazed a trail for
other young aspiring musicians, winning
AMI Awards for Best Artist and Best