Born on March 5, 1929 from the couple of Wiranta and Imi, Little Udjo started his journey in music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 and culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

, since he was 4 years old. Udjo began to learn Angklung

Angklung

The Angklung is a musical instrument made of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved to have a resonant pitch when struck and are tuned to octaves. The base of the frame is held in one hand, whilst the other hand shakes the instrument rapidly. This causes a repeating note...

 in both diatonic and pentatonic tone scales – which made him good at playing traditional Sundanese

Sundanese people

The Sundanese are an ethnic group native to the western part of the Indonesian island of Java. They number approximately 31 million, and are the second most populous of all the nation's ethncities. The Sundanese are predominantly Muslim...

, popular Indonesian

Culture of Indonesia

Indonesian culture has been shaped by long interaction between original indigenous customs and multiple foreign influences. Indonesia is central along ancient trading routes between the Far East and the Middle East, resulting in many cultural practices being strongly influenced by a multitude of...

 songs and even Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 ones.

His talent kept growing and he became an art teacher in several schools in Bandung

Bandung

Bandung is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and the country's third largest city, and 2nd largest metropolitan area in Indonesia, with a population of 7.4 million in 2007. Located 768 metres above sea level, approximately 140 km southeast of Jakarta, Bandung has cooler...

. To improve his knowledge and ability, Udjo did not hesitate to learn directly from the experts, such as : Mang Koko (the creator of Kacapi); Rd.Machyar Angga Kusumahdinata (the gamelan guru); and Daeng Soetigna the re–inventor of diatonic Angklung. Soon he became the assistant of Daeng Soetigna, and led performances on behalf of the teacher.
He was married to Uum Sumiati and had 10 children, and thank God they are all inherited much of Udjo’s passion and talent for Angklung. His passionate love for art and culture was a reason for Udjo Ngalagena and his wife Uum Sumiati to establish Saung Angklung Udjo by itself.
As he died on May 3, 2001, the daughters and sons kept continuing Saung Angklung Udjo