Leveraging on the Sape’s popularity among youths in Sarawak and in Malaysia as a whole, Yayasan Perpaduan Sarawak will come up with a four-day Sape Camp to be held on June 19– 22 in Kuching.

It is targeted particularly at youths of different races who would like to pursue Sape and make it part of their wider musical instrument portfolio.

This project is specifically centred on the YPS corporate objective of reaching out to our target audience, the youth of various races.

YPS aims to bring them together as part of a unique strategic intention, using Sape as a uniting factor to pursue their musical interests and careers of our young people in Malaysia.

This legendary Sarawak’s native instrument will be the bonding factor among these young musicians, and together they will build their musical interest under the common banner of Sape.

Camp’s objectives:

1. Bringing youths from all races together to know more in depth, learn, and play Sape makes it a common uniting factor and thus part of YPS’ strategic ideals.
2. To share information on Sape’s origin, history, and appreciation in the music industry.
3. Sape musical composition
4. Exposure to Sape making and design selection.

SAPE Camp 2023

To be conducted by local professional musicians:

• Our Sape legend, Matthew Ngau,
• Composer Narawi Rashidi
• Sarawak’s Sape maestro, Jerry Kamit
• Our local researcher and academician, Dr. Connie Lim of UNIMAS, These key individuals will share their in-depth knowledge and experience of the Sape as a musical instrument, its origin, and the Sape’s musical journey worldwide. Their ideas will be solicited on the range of suitable topics for discussion, from practical and theoretical applications and exchange to jamming sessions and Sape-making demonstrations.

The details of the camp:

• It is a four-day comprehensive Sape youth camp, starting on June 19 and ending on Thursday, June 22 in Kuching.
• Participants will include local Sarawakians, Sabah, and Peninsular Malaysia.
• Upon their “graduation”, they will be our “YPS Sape Ambassadors,” having a united goal of pursuing Sape as their musical instrument of choice, Sape music as part of their musical selections, and above all, being able to share about the musical journey, even though Sape is not their native musical instrument.

It will indeed be a milestone for YPS to leverage this camp to project its corporate branding and imaging to our stakeholders, the public, and youths in particular.

The closing ceremony will be graced by His Excellency, Chairman of the YPS Board of Trustees, and also the Yang di-Pertua Negeri, Tun Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, on June 22 at the Borneo Cultural Museum.

To mark the end of the camp, the Sape ambassadors will do a mini-concert called the Evening Unity Concert on June 22, from 7:30 p.m. onwards at the Godown Amphitheatre at the Kuching Waterfront.

The hour-long concert will feature these ambassadors dressed in their full traditional costume taking the lead in the Sape evening stage show.