Ananda Sukarla started playing piano at the age of five and when he was 17, he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1993 from the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag in the Netherlands. He then went on to win several international competitions, including the Nadia Boulanger Award of Orleans. Ananda was the first Indonesian artist to establish cultural relationships with Portugal by performing as a soloist with the Portuguese National Symphony Orchestra in 2000.